Abstract

Variable-width variable-thickness laminated composite beams provide stiffness-tailoring and mass-tailoring design capabilities. They are increasingly and widely being used in engineering applications including robotic manipulators, aircraft wings, space structures, helicopter blades and yokes, turbine blades, and civil infrastructure. These structures are subjected to time-varying loadings. In the present work, the free and the forced vibration response of symmetric linear-thickness-and-width-tapered laminated composite beams are considered. Considering a variety of tapered configurations according to different types of plies drop-off configurations, both conventional and advanced finite element formulations are developed based on the Kirchhoff and cylindrical laminated beam bending theories. Natural frequencies, mode shapes and forced vibration response of different types of internally-tapered composite beams are determined. Rigid and elastic supports are considered for the free vibration response of the beams. Rigid supports are considered for the forced vibration response of the beams. Comparison of the finite element solution with the Rayleigh-Ritz solution is performed. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of taper configurations, thickness-tapering angle, width-ratios, damping and boundary conditions on the free and forced vibration response of the variable-thickness variable-width laminated composite beams.