Transverse Response of an Axially Moving Beam with Intermediate Viscoelastic Support

This study presented the transverse vibration of an axially moving beam with an intermediate nonlinear viscoelastic foundation. Hamilton’s principle was used to derive the nonlinear equations of motion. The finite difference and state-space methods transform the partial differential equations into a system of coupled first-order regular differential equations. The numerical modeling procedures are utilized for evaluating the effects of parameters, such as axial translation velocity, flexure rigidities of the beam, damping, and stiffness of the support on the transverse response amplitude and frequencies. It is observed that the dimensionless fundamental frequency and magnitude of axial speed had an inverse correlation. Furthermore, increasing the flexure rigidity of the beam reduced the transverse displacement, but at the same instant, fundamental frequency rises. Vibration amplitude is found to be significantly reduced with higher damping of support. It is also observed that an increase in the foundation damping leads to lower fundamental frequencies, whereas increasing the foundation stiffness results in higher frequencies.