Vibration analysis of sandwich beams with variable cross section on variable Winkler elastic foundation

Abstract In this study, free vibration behavior of a multilayered symmetric sandwich beam made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) with variable cross section resting on variable Winkler elastic foundation are investigated. The elasticity and density of the functionally graded (FG) sandwich beam vary through the thickness according to the power law. This law is related to mixture rules and laminate theory. In order to provide this, a 50-layered beam is considered. Each layer is isotropic and homogeneous, although the volume fractions of the constituents of each layer are different. Furthermore, the width of the beam varies exponentially along the length of the beam, and also the beam is resting on an elastic foundation whose coefficient is variable along the length of the beam. The natural frequencies are computed for conventional boundary conditions of the FG sandwich beam using a theoretical procedure. The effects of material, geometric, elastic foundation indexes and slenderness ratio on natural frequencies and mode shapes of the beam are also computed and discussed. Finally, the results obtained are compared with a finite-element-based commercial program, ANSYS ^® , and found to be consistent with each other.