The modes of non-homogeneous damped beams

This short note is concerned with computing the eigenvalues and eigenfuncti ons of a continuous beam model with damping, using the separation of variab les approach. The beam considered has different stiffness. damping and mass properties in each of two parts. Pinned boundary conditions are assumed at each end, although other boundary conditions may be applied at the ends qu ite simply. Although applications are not considered in detail, one possibl e example is a thin beam partly submerged in a fluid. The fluid would add c onsiderable damping and mass to the beam structure, and possibly some stiff ness. Yang and Zhang [1] calculated these added mass and damping coefficien ts for parallel Rat plates. (C) 2001 Academic Press.