Original Article

Accurate modeling of preload

discontinuity in the analytical approach
of the nonlinear free vibration of beams
Hamid M Sedighi
1
, Kourosh H Shirazi
1
, Arash Reza
1
and
Jamal Zare
2
Abstract
This article attempts to investigate the dynamical analysis of beam vibrations in the presence of preload discontinuity and
proposes an innovative accurate equivalent function for this well-known nonlinearity. This approach enables us to
overcome the inherent computational difficulty of the preload nonlinearity in the analytical investigations. At first, the
nonlinear equation of beam vibration with preload boundary condition is considered and analytical solution is obtained
using Hes parameter expanding method. The precision of the proposed equivalent function has been elucidated by
comparison of our results with the obtained solutions using numerical method. Finally, the accuracy of the obtained
results in the vibration analysis of suspension bridges as a realistic problem, verifies the strength of the presented
modeling.
Keywords
Accurate equivalent function, preload discontinuity, nonlinear vibration of beam, suspension bridges, Hes parameter
expanding method
Date received: 20 August 2011; accepted: 15 December 2011
Introduction
The nonlinear vibration of beams as a signicant issue
in the structural engineering applications has been
investigated by various researchers.
112
The sources of
nonlinearity in the vibrating systems are generally con-
sidered as due to the physical nonlinearity, geometric
nonlinearity, and the nonlinearity of boundary condi-
tions. In the case of discontinuous nonlinearity, the
analytical solution of such problems becomes very com-
plex. Preload nonlinearity, due to its inherent diculty,
has not been modeled exactly by researchers till present.
The approximation of this nonlinear condition in order
to obtain the analytical solution of dynamical systems
behavior has been always the major diculty of engi-
neers computations.
Preloaded spring elements are encountered in many
realistic mechanical and structural systems either due to
intentional pre-compression, unintended manufactur-
ing, or heat treatment process. Intentional pre-com-
pression is usually applied to the members, which will
later see tensile forces in service. Because of the pre-
compression, all or most of these tensile forces will be
countered by reductions. Typically, concrete is used in
prestressed construction which has the larger compres-
sive strength than the tensile one. The eciency of the
structure will be greatly enhanced and the concrete will
be restrained from cracking. Suspension bridge is an
elastic vibrating beam sustained by steel cables which
are attached to a main suspended cable and are sub-
jected to pre-tension due to the bridge weight. The
hangers do not withstand compression eorts, and
oppose a restoring force when stretched. De Freitas
et al.
13
considered the transversal vibration of a suspen-
sion bridge, for which the hangers are treated as one-
sided springs and investigated the stability of periodic
attractors in the phase plane. Rogers et al.
14
studied the
joystick dynamics where the preload stiness (as a sti
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Chamran University, Iran
2
Department of Drilling Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology,
Iran
Corresponding author:
Hamid M Sedighi, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid
Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran.
Email: hmsedighi@gmail.com
Proc IMechE Part C:
J Mechanical Engineering Science
226(10) 24742484
! IMechE 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0954406211435196
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spring) was based on measured forcedisplacement pro-
le. Aktiirk et al.
15
performed an approximated theo-
retical investigation about the eect of varying preload
on the vibration characteristics of a shaft bearing
system. Dynamics of a mechanical oscillator with pre-
load nonlinearity was investigated by Chengwu and
Rajendra.
16
They smoothen the preload nonlinearity
with arctan function. A rotary piezoelectric motor
design using a preloaded beam stator was investigated
by Wajchman et al.
17
They empirically approximated
the preload nonlinearity in order to achieve the opti-
mum eciency of the motor performance.
Recently, considerable attention has been directed
toward analytical solutions for nonlinear equations
without small parameters. There have been several
classical approaches employed to solve the governing
nonlinear dierential equations to study the
nonlinear vibrations including perturbation methods,
18
frequency amplitude formulation,
19
articial parameter
LindstedtPoincare method,
20,21
Min-Max method,
22,23
multiple scales method,
24
variational iteration
method,
25
HAM,
2628
semi-analytical nite element
29
and homotopy perturbation method
30,31
are used to
solve nonlinear problems.
Hes parameter expanding method (HPEM) is one of
the most eective methods for analytical solution of
nonlinear dierential equations. PEM has been shown
to eectively, easily and accurately solve large non-
linear problems with components that rapidly converge
to accurate solutions. The asymptotic analysis of non-
linear beam vibration with deadzone boundary condi-
tion using HPEM has been studied by Sedighi et al.
32
Sweilam and Al-Bar
33
implemented the HPEM to the
coupled van der pol oscillators. Shin et al.
34
applied
HPEM to approximate the solution of the coupled non-
linear self-excited oscillators and achieved the fre-
quency of mentioned systems. The nonlinear
vibrations analysis of inextensible beams was investi-
gated by Kimiaeifar et al.
35
using HPEM. They also
studied the inuence of dierent parameters on the
system response stability. Sweilam and Khader
36
inves-
tigated the application of HPEM to the coupled system
of nonlinear partial dierential equation and showed
the solution accuracy by focusing on Manakov systems.
The presence of preload nonlinearity in dynamical
systems gives rise to an appreciable complexity in the
analytical solution procedure. This is the main reason
that no exact analytical denition has been proposed in
the earlier research studies. As mentioned above, this
nonlinearity has been approximated by trigonometric
functions or has been numerically solved. Moreover,
the PEM has not been developed in the eld of beam
dynamical behavior until now. The objective of this
article is to introduce the innovative exact equivalent
function (EF) for preload nonlinearity as a boundary
condition and to implement the PEM in the nonlinear
beam vibrations.
In this article, the nonlinear ordinary dierential
equation of beam vibration is extracted from partial
dierential equation with rst mode approximation,
based on the Galerkin theory. Then, the preload non-
linear boundary condition of the beam is modeled using
newly introduced EF. The results presented in this arti-
cle demonstrate that the proposed EF is very eective
and convenient for nonlinear oscillators where the pre-
load nonlinear boundary condition exists. Finally, the
free vibration of real suspension bridges is studied and
the obtained results are qualitatively compared with
De Freitas et al.
13
and Doole and Hogan.
37
Modeling of preload nonlinearity
Consider the system that is shown in Figure 1, where
the cantilever beam is subjected to preloaded spring at
its end. Neglecting the shearing deformations and out-
of-plane motion of the beam, governing partial dier-
ential equation for the nonlinear exural vibration of
the beam is given as follows
38
m v EIv
iv
EI v
0
v
0
v
00

0
_ _
0

1
2
m v
0
_
x
L
o
2
ot
2
_
x
0
v
02
dx
_ _
dx
_ _
0
0 1
where x is the axial coordinate which is measured from
the origin, v the lateral vibration in y direction, m the
mass per unit length of the beam, E the Youngs mod-
ulus, and I the area moment of inertia. The boundary
conditions for the beam of length L are given as follows
v 0, t
ov
ox
0, t 0,
o
2
v
ox
2
L, t 0,
EI
o
3
v
ox
3
L, t F
pl
L, t 2
where F
pl
L, t is the boundary condition at its end and
is described by the following nonlinear preload formula
with cubic nonlinearity
F
pl
v L, t
F
0
K v L, t
3
v L, t 40
F
0
K v L, t
3
v L, t 50
_
3
where K is the constant of nonlinear spring. Assuming
v x, t q t x , where x is the rst eigenmode of
the clamped-free beam and can be expressed as
x cosh zx cos zx

cosh zL cos zL
sinh zL sin zL
sinh zx sin zx 4
Sedighi et al. 2475
where z 1.875 is the root of characteristic equation
for rst eigenmode. Applying the weighted residual
BubnovGalerkin method yields
_
L
0
m v EIv
iv
EI v
0
v
0
v
00

0
_ _
0
_

1
2
m v
0
_
x
L
o
2
ot
2
_
x
0
v
02
dx
_ _
dx
_ _
0
_
x dx 0 5
to implement the end nonlinear boundary condition,
applying integration by part on equation (5), it is con-
verted to the following
_
L
0
m v EI v
0
v
0
v
00

0
_ _
0
_

1
2
m v
0
_
x
L
o
2
ot
2
_
x
0
v
02
dx
_ _
dx
_ __
x dx

_
L
0
EIv
iv
x dx 0 6
_
L
0
m vEI v
0
v
0
v
00

0
_ _
0

1
2
m v
0
_
x
L
o
2
ot
2
_
x
0
v
02
dx
_ _
dx
_ _ _ _
x dxEIv
000
x

L
0

_
L
0
EIv
000
d x 0 7
In the above equation, the boundary condition term
EIv
000
L, t is replaced by F
pl
L, t . So, we can obtain
the nonlinear equation in terms of the time-dependent
variables as
q [
1
q [
2
q
3
[
4
q_ q
2
[
5
q
2
q F
pl
L, t 0 8
where
[
1
12.3624EI,mL
4
, [
2
40.44EI,mL
6
16K,mL,
[
4
[
5
4.6,L
2
9
To analytically solve nonlinear ordinary equation
(8), the preload condition F
pl
, must be properly formu-
lated. We introduce suitable and novel exact EF for this
nonlinearity as
F
pl
u
1
2

1
2
u j j
u
_ _
F
0
Ku
3
_ _

1
2

1
2
u j j
u
_ _
F
0
Ku
3
_ _
10
Figure 2 graphically shows the EF forF
pl
. Using this
new denition of F
pl
, equation (9) is written as follows
q [
1
q 1[
2
q
3
[
3
q

,q [
4
q_ q
2
[
5
q
2
q 0
11
Figure 1. Cantilever beam with preload nonlinear boundary
condition.
Figure 2. Plot of EF preload nonlinearity.
2476 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 226(10)
where
[
3
2F
0
,mL 12
Consider equation (11) for the vibration of a canti-
lever EulerBernoulli beam with the following general
initial conditions
q 0 A, _ q 0 0 13
The limit-cycles of oscillating systems are periodic
motions with the period T 2,o, and thus q t can
be expressed by such a set of base functions
cos mo t , m 1, 2, 3, . . . 14
We denote the angular frequency of oscillation by o
and note that one of our major tasks is to determine
o A , i.e. the functional behavior of o as a function of
the initial amplitude A. In the PEM, an articial per-
turbation equation is constructed by embedding an
articial parameter p 2 0, 1 which is used as an
expanding parameter.
According to PEM, the solution of equation (11) is
expanded into a series of p in the following form
q t q
0
t pq
1
t p
2
q
2
t . . . 15
The coecients 1 and [
1
in equation (11) are
expanded in a similar way
1 1 pa
1
p
2
a
2
. . .
[
1
o
2
pb
1
p
2
b
2
. . .
1 pc
1
p
2
c
2
. . . 16
where a
i
, b
i
, c
i
i 1, 2, 3, . . . are to be determined.
When p 0, equation (11) becomes a linear dierential
equation for which an exact solution can be calculated
for p 1. Substituting equations (15) and (16) into
equation (11)
1 pa
1
q
0
p q
1
o
2
pb
1
_ _
q
0
pq
1

pc
1
p
2
c
2
_ _
[
2
q
0
pq
1

3
_
[
4
q
0
pq
1
_ q
0
p_ q
1

2
[
5
q
0
pq
1

2
q
0
p q
1

[
3
f
pl
q
0
pq
1

_
0
17
where
f
pl
q q

,q 18
in equation (18), we have taken into account the fol-
lowing expression
f
pl
q f
pl
q
0
pq
1
p
2
q
2
. . .
_ _
f
pl
q
0

pq
1
f
0
pl
q
0
O p
2
_ _
19
where
f
0
pl
q
df
pl
dq
f
00
pl
q f
000
pl
q . . . 0 20
therefore
f
pl
q f
pl
q
0
pq
1
p
2
q
2
. . .
_ _
f
pl
q
0
21
collecting the terms of the same power of p in equation
(17), we obtain a series of linear equations in which the
rst equation is
q
0
t o
2
q
0
t 0, q
0
0 A, _ q
0
0 0 22
with the solution
q
0
t Acos ot 23
substitution of this result into the right-hand side of
second equation gives
q
1
t o
2
q
1
t
b
1
A
8

c
1
[
3
F
0

3
4
c
1
[
2
A
3

3
4
c
1
[
5
A
3
o
2
_

1
4
c
1
[
4
A
3
o
2
a
1
Ao
2
_
cos ot

1
4
c
1
A
3
[
4
o
2
[
5
o
2
[
2
_ _
cos 3ot 24
In the above equation, the possible following
Fourier series expansion have been accomplished
f
pl
q
0
f
pl
Acos ot

1
n1
h
n
cos not
h
1
cos ot h
2
cos 2ot . . . 25
where
h
n

2

_
,2
,2
f
pl
Acos cos n d, 26
and the functions f
pl
are substituted from equations (18)
and (21). The rst terms of the expansion in equation
(26) are given by
h
1

2

_
,2
,2
f
pl
Acos cos d
8F
0

27
Solution of equation (24) should not contain the so-
called secular term cos ot . To ensure so, the right-
hand side of this equation should not contain the
terms cos, i.e. the coecients of cos must be zero
Sedighi et al. 2477
b
1
A
8

c
1
[
3
F
0

3
4
c
1
[
2
A
3

3
4
c
1
[
5
A
3
o
2

1
4
c
1
[
4
A
3
o
2
a
1
Ao
2
0 28
equation (16) for one-term approximation of series
respect to pand for p 1 yields
a
1
0, b
1
o
2
[
1
, c
1
1 29
From equations (28) and (29), we can easily nd that
the solution o is
o A

[
1

8
A
[
3
F
0

3
4
[
2
A
2
4[
3
1
3
4
[
5
A
2

1
4
[
4
A
2

_
30
Replacing o from equation (30) into equation (23)
yields
q t % q
0
t Acos

[
1

8
A
[
3
F
0

3
4
[
2
A
2
4[
3
1
3
4
[
5
A
2

1
4
[
4
A
2
_
t
_ _
31
To indicate the soundness of the obtained analytical
solution, the authors also numerically calculate the var-
iation of nondimensional amplitude A,L versus nor-
malized time t ot. As can be seen in Figure 3, the
rst-order approximation of q t , which is obtained
through PEM and new EF, has an excellent agreement
with numerical results using fourth-order RungeKutta
method.
To indicate the eect of preload force on the
response of beam vibration, the nondimentional pre-
load parameter , F
0
,KA is introduced. As depicted
in Figure 4, for the same normalized amplitude, the
frequency of beam vibration increases when the preload
parameter gets larger. It is evident that the solution
rapidly converges and is valid for a wide range of pre-
load parameter and initial conditions.
The variation of frequency versus normalized ampli-
tude and preload forces is represented in Figure 5. As
can be observed, the more the preloaded force, the larger
the limit-cycle frequency. Regardless of the preload
force value, when the normalized amplitude increases,
the frequency decreases. From Figure 6, as the vibration
amplitude shifts upwards, at rst, the frequency reduces
until it reaches a minimum value and then continuously
increases. In addition, decreasing the beam length leads
to increasing in the response frequency.
Figure 7 shows the eect of spring stiness on the
nonlinear frequency of the system. It can be seen that at
large amplitudes when the spring stiness gets larger,
the frequency increases greatly. However, at small
amplitudes, the frequency is independent from stiness
parameter and so reduces as a function of amplitude
only. Typical amplitude of cantilever beam vibration
with normalized amplitude A,L 0.2 along its length
is illustrated in Figure 8.
Practical problem
Periodic oscillations in suspension bridges
Consider the roadbed of a suspension bridge in
Figure 9, which can be modeled as an elastic vibrating
Figure 3. Comparison of the approximated first-order periodic solution (continuous line) with the numerical results (stars).
2478 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 226(10)
beam sustained by steel cables attached to a main sus-
pended cable. The equation of motion for the
undamped and free-bridge oscillations is governed by
De Freitas et al.
13
y
00
f y W 32
where W is the beam weight per unit length. The dis-
continuous function f y is dened as
f y
y y 50
k 1 y y 40
_
33
The nonlinear function is rewritten by the novel EF
as follows
f y
1
2

1
2
y

y
_ _
k 1 y
1
2

1
2
y

y
_ _
y
34
Using this new denition of f y , equation (34) is
rewritten as follows
y
00
o
2
n
y p W
k
2
y
y

y
_ _
35
Figure 5. The effect of preload force on the nonlinear frequency.
Figure 4. The influence of preload parameter on the vibrational response.
Sedighi et al. 2479
where o
2
n
1 k,2 , in accord with homotopy
perturbation-based techniques,
39
the response of
equation (35) is expanded into a series of p in the
following form
y t y
0
t py
1
t p
2
y
2
t . . . 36
The coecient o
2
n
in equation (35) is expanded in a
similar way
o
2
n
o
2
pb
1
p
2
b
2
. . . 37
Substituting equations (36) and (37) into equation
(35) yields
y
00
0
py
00
1
p
2
y
00
2
. . .
_ _
o
2
pb
1
p
2
b
2
. . .
_ _
y
0
py
1
p
2
y
2
. . .
_ _
p W
k
2
y
0
py
1
p
2
y
2
. . .
_ _
_
sgn y
0
py
1
p
2
y
2
. . .
_ __
38
explaining the nonlinear sign function in the form of
Fourier series expansion, as mentioned in the previous
section as follows
Figure 6. The effect of beam length on the nonlinear frequency.
Figure 7. The effect of spring stiffness on the nonlinear frequency.
2480 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 226(10)
sgn y
0
py
1
p
2
y
2
. . .
_ _
sgn y
0

1
n0
a
2n1
cos 2n 1 ot 39
where
a
2n1

4

_
,2
0
sgn Acos cos 2n 1 d 40
This equation gives
a
1

4

, a
3

4
3
, a
5

4
5
, a
7

4
7
, . . .
41
collecting the terms of the same power of p in equation
(38) gives a series of the following linear dierential
equations
y
00
0
o
2
y
0
0, y
0
0 A, y
0
0 0 42
y
00
1
o
2
y
1
Wb
1
y
0

2k

y
0
cos ot
1
3
cos 3ot
_

1
5
cos 5ot
1
7
cos ot
_
, y
1
0 0, y
0
0 0
43
The solution of equation (42) is
Figure 8. Typical vibration amplitude along beam length with A,L 0.2.
Figure 9. Configuration of a suspension bridge.
Sedighi et al. 2481
y
0
t Acos ot , 44
Substitution of above solution into the right-hand
side of equation (43) gives
y
00
1
o
2
y
1
W
kA

Ab
1
cos ot

2kA

1
3
cos 2ot
1
15
cos 4ot
1
35
cos 6ot
_

1
14
cos 8ot
_
45
the right-hand side of this equation should not contain
the terms cos; collecting the secular terms, we have
b
1
0. Therefore, the rst-order approximation of o
can be obtained as follows
o o
n

1
k
2
_
46
Omitting secular term in equation (45), the equation
can be rewritten as follows
y
00
1
o
2
y
1
W
kA

2kA

1
3
cos 2ot
1
15
cos 4ot
1
35
cos 6ot
1
14
cos 8ot
_ _
47
Equation (47) should be solved to obtain the second-
order approximate solution y
1
. To indicate the accu-
racy of this procedure, according to De Freitas
et al.
13
, the following parameter values are selected
W 1000, k 1000, A 3.5 48
For these values, the second-order approximation
y
1
t is obtained as follows
y
1
t 0.2277 0.787 sinot 0.245 cosot
0.494 cos2ot 0.01977 cos4ot
0.0036 cos6ot 0.005 cos8ot 49
Figure 10. Comparison between analytical solutions (continuous line) with the numerical results (circles).
Table 1. Analytical natural frequencies
of suspension bridge for different initial
conditions.
Initial condition
y 0 (m)
Natural frequency
(Hz)
3.7 22.3754
3.5 23.3135
3.2 24.8340
2.7 27.7763
2.2 30.8747
1.7 31.6365
1.2 31.6683
2482 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 226(10)
A typical phase portrait of the bridge has been illus-
trated in Figure 10. As it indicates, the fourth order of
approximation is in agreement with the numerical
results. Comparing the results, valid for real bridges,
with those obtained in the previous works,
13,37
it is
clear that the results are qualitatively analogous with
slight dierence in numerical values because of dierent
initial conditions.
Table 1 presents the natural frequencies of the men-
tioned suspension bridge for dierent initial conditions
which is obtained from analytical procedure. As can be
observed, the frequency increases when the initial
condition decreases.
Figure 11 depicts a typical phase portrait for dier-
ent initial conditions. The three inner preloaded orbits
are harmonic small-amplitude oscillations encircling
the stable equilibrium point located at y
0
W,k 1
for the state of _ y 0. Large amplitude bridge oscilla-
tions, on the other hand, are closed curves formed by
arcs of ellipses for y 40 smoothly joined to arcs of
circles for y 50. Actual bridges also have strong pre-
loading, and this brings about the preloaded orbits
again, as shown in Figure 11.
Concluding remarks
Innovative EF for discontinuous preload nonlinearity
has been employed to predict the analytical response
of nonlinear beam vibrations. The preload nonlinearity
was precisely rewritten using the continuous functions.
This new EF is implemented in nonlinear vibration of
beams and excellent analytical approximate solutions by
HPEM were obtained. It appears from the present study
that the proposed EF can signicantly make the analyt-
ical investigation of the nonlinear problems to be quite
easily estimated. The accuracy of the obtained results in
the vibration analysis of suspension bridges as a realistic
problem, veries the strength of the presented modeling.
Funding
This research has received no specic grant from any funding
agency in the public, commercial, or not-forprot sectors.
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