Abstract
This paper deals with the free vibrations of horizontally curved beams partially supported on elastic foundations. Taking account of the effects of rotatory inertia and shear deformation, differential equations governing the free vibrations of such beams are derived, in which the Pasternak foundation model is considered as the elastic foundation. Differential equations are numerically solved to calculate natural frequencies and mode shapes. The experiments were performed in which the free vibration frequencies of such curved beams in laboratorial scale were measured and these results agreed quite well with the present studies. In numerical examples, the circular, parabolic, sinusoidal and elliptic curved members are considered. The parametric studies are performed and the lowest four frequency parameters are reported in tables and figures as the non-dimensional forms. Also the typical mode shapes are presented.