Investigation of the Effect of Axial Loads on the Transverse Vibrations of a Vertical Cantilever with Variable Parameters

The method of influence function is applied to the solution of the boundary-value problem on the free transverse vibrations of a vertical cantilever and a bar subjected to axial loads. To demonstrate the capabilities of the method, a cantilever with the free end under two types of loading — point forces (conservative and follower) and a load distributed along the length (dead load) — is analyzed. A characteristic equation in the general form, which does not depend on the cantilever shape and on the type of axial load, is given. The Cauchy influence function depends on the cantilever shape and the type of axial load. As an example, a tapered cantilever subjected to conservative and follower forces and an elastically supported bar under the dead load are considered in detail. The characteristic equation derived allows one to evaluate the natural frequencies and the Euler critical loads. It is shown that the calculated natural frequencies and critical forces are in a good agreement with the exact values when several terms are retained in the characteristic series. The high accuracy of the method is also confirmed