A NONLINEAR MOVING MASS PROBLEM

The longitudinal and transverse motions of a finite elastic beam trave rsed by a moving mass are presented. Using Hamilton's principle, two n on-linear coupled differential equations governing the transverse and longitudinal displacements of the beam are developed. A finite differe nce method combined with a perturbation technique is used to solve the resulting boundary value problem. The results show the differences be tween the moving force and moving mass problems for the dynamic system . The effect of the friction force between the mass and beam on the lo ngitudinal motion is shown to be significant. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.