Vibration analysis of rotating composite beams using a finite element model with warping degrees of freedom

A finite element beam formulation that properly takes into account the warping of the cross-sections has been extended to the free vibration analysis of rotating and nonrotating composite beams. The formulation allows transverse shear deformation and the warping effects are incorporated by superimposing warping displacements that are parallel to the beam axis in the deformed configuration. For modeling of thin and moderately thick walled sections, the strain is assumed to be linear through the wall thickness. Numerical tests were conducted to calculate the natural frequencies of cantilever composite beams with various ply layups. Correlations of the calculated natural frequencies with experimentally measured values demonstrate the validity of the present approach. Although only rectangular solid and box beams were considered for numerical tests, the formulation allows modeling of beams with complicated cross-sections, tapers, pretwists and arbitrary planforms.