Dynamic stability of Euler beams under axial unsteady wind force

Abstract

Dynamic instability of beams in complex structures caused by unsteady wind load has occurred more frequently. However, studies on the parametric resonance of beams are generally limited to harmonic loads, while arbitrary dynamic load is rarely involved. The critical frequency equation for simply supported Euler beams with uniform section under arbitrary axial dynamic forces is firstly derived in this paper based on the Mathieu-Hill equation. Dynamic instability regions with high precision are then calculated by a presented eigenvalue method. Further, the dynamically unstable state of beams under the wind force with any mean or fluctuating component is determined by load normalization, and the wind-induced parametric resonant response is computed by the Runge-Kutta approach. Finally, a measured wind load time-history is input into the dynamic system to indicate that the proposed methods are effective. This study presents a new method to determine the wind-induced dynamic stability of Euler beams. The beam would become dynamically unstable provided that the parametric point, denoting the relation between load properties and structural frequency, is located in the instability region, no matter whether the wind load component is large or not. © 2014 You-Qin Huang et al.