• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2000.04b
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• pp.263-270
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• 2000

It is generally known that the stress and displacement of a member or a system under dynamic load with frequency ω are magnified by the factor 1/[1-(ω/ω/sub 0/)sup/ 2/]. When the member assumes non-prismatic shape, the natural frequency, ω/sub 0/ is hard or impossible to determine if the conventional method are adopted. In these cases, the numerical methods are provide powerful tools for the solution of frequency problems. In this paper, finite element method is applied to determine the natural frequencies of the non-symmetrically tapered members. The shape of the member is assumed to change sinusoidally along its axis. The results obtained by finite element method are expressed by some simple algebraic equations. The estimated frequencies calculated by the proposed equations coincide well with those by the finite element method.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.87-95
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• 2000

The two eigenvalues (elastic critical load and natural frequency of lateral vibration) of sinusoidally tapered bats with simply supported ends were determined by the finite element method. For the convenience of structural engineers who are engaged in the structural design or vibration analysis of tapered beam-columns, eigenvalue coefficients were expressed by simple algebraic equations. The validity of each algebraic equation was confirmed by the value of unity for each correlation coefficient. The influence of axial thrust on the lateral vibration frequency was also investigated. For this purpose, the axial thrust was increased successively and the corresponding frequency was calculated. The approximate linear relationship between the axial thrust and the square of the frequency was confirmed lot each of the tapered members.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.421-428
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• 1999

The elastic critical load of a slender compression member plays an important role when the proper design of that member is required. For the tapered compression members, however, there are cases when the conventional neutral equililbrium or energy method can't be applied to the determination of critical loads of those members. In this paper, finite element method is applied to the approximate determination of the symmetrically tapered bars. Here in this paper, the bars are assumed to take sinusoidally changing shapes along their axes. The parameters considered in this study are taper parameter, $\alpha$ and the sectional property parameter, m. The computed results by finite element method are represented in the forms of algebraic equations. Regression technique is employed to determine the coefficients of algebraic equations. The critical loads estimated by the proposed algebraic equations coincide fairly well with those of finite element method.