Out-of-plane vibrations of shear deformable continuous horizontally curvedthin-walled beams

This paper presents numerical study about the influence of the shear flexib ility, due to either bending and warping, on the out-of-plane free vibratio n of continuous horizontally curved thin-walled beams with both open and cl osed sections. This study was made by means of a recently developed finite element formulation for shear deformable curved thin-walled beams. The mode l is briefly reviewed and is used to obtain natural frequencies of continuo us I-beams and box beams. A parametric study was performed in order to eluc idate the influence of shear deformability, on the dynamic behavior of cont inuous thin-walled curved beams, for different slenderness ratios, cross-se ctional characteristics and boundary conditions. (C) 2000 Academic Press.