• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.2173-2180
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• 1995

This paper presents free vibration analysis method using the characteristics of the rotationally periodic structures and includes the analysis results of a tire as an example. The normal modes of the rotationally periodic structures are the kind of standing waves, so all sectors have the same deflection shapes, and only different phases. This property makes it possible to derive the analysis method called sector method. The sector method can give the accurate natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes of the rotationally periodic structure with information of only one sector. When the free vibration analysis is performed to find the dynamic characteristics of the rotationally periodic structure by using the sector method, the computer memory spaces and the CPU times can be saved. We obtained much economic benefits by using the sector method in the analysis of dynamic characteristics of a tire made of non-linear materials.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.553-568
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• 1996

Finite element stiffness matrix methods are presented for finding natural frequencies (or buckling loads) and modes of repetitive structures. The usual approximate finite element formulations are included, but more relevantly they also permit the use of 'exact finite elements', which account for distributed mass exactly by solving appropriate differential equations. A transcendental eigenvalue problem results, for which all the natural frequencies are found with certainty. The calculations are performed for a single repeating portion of a rotationally or linearly (in one, two or three directions) repetitive structure. The emphasis is on rotational periodicity, for which principal advantages include: any repeating portions can be connected together, not just adjacent ones; nodes can lie on, and members along, the axis of rotational periodicity; complex arithmetic is used for brevity of presentation and speed of computation; two types of rotationally periodic substructures can be used in a multi-level manner; multi-level non-periodic substructuring is permitted within the repeating portions of parent rotationally periodic structures or substructures and; all the substructuring is exact, i.e., the same answers are obtained whether or not substructuring is used. Numerical results are given for a rotationally periodic structure by using exact finite elements and two levels of rotationally periodic substructures. The solution time is about 500 times faster than if none of the rotational periodicity had been used. The solution time would have been about ten times faster still if the software used had included all the substructuring features presented.