TIME-DOMAIN GREEN-FUNCTIONS FOR THE HOMOGENEOUS TIMOSHENKO BEAM

In this paper a wave splitting technique is applied to a homogeneous T imoshenko beam. The purpose is to obtain a diagonal equation in terms of the split fields. These fields are calculated in the time domain fr om an appropriate set of boundary conditions. The fields along the bea m are represented as a time convolution of Green functions with the ex citation. The Green functions do not depend on the wave fields but onl y on the parameters of the beam. Green functions for a Timoshenko beam are derived, and the exponential behaviour of these functions as well as the split modes are discussed. A transformation that extracts the exponential part is performed. Some numerical examples for various loa ds are presented and compared with results appearing in the literature .