Free vibration of axially functionally graded Timoshenko beams with non-uniform cross-section

This paper presents a new approach for investigating the vibration behaviors of axially functionally graded Timoshenko beams with non-uniform cross-section. By introducing an auxiliary function, we can change the coupled governing equations with variable coefficients for the deflection and rotation to a single governing equation. Moreover, all physical quantities can be expressed in terms of the solution of the resulting equation. Making use of power series for unknown function, we can transform the single equation to a system of linear algebraic equations and will get a characteristic equation in natural frequencies for different boundary conditions. An advantage of the suggested approach is that the derived characteristic equation is a polynomial equation, where the lower and higher-order natural frequencies can be determined simultaneously from the multi-roots. Several examples of estimating natural frequencies for axially grade beams and non-uniform beams are presented, which show that our method has fast convergence and obtained numerical results have high accuracy.