Exact vibration solution for exponentially tapered cantilever with tip mass

Abstract

This technical note is concerned with the free vibration problem of a cantilever beam with constant thickness and exponentially decaying width. Existing analytical results for such a vibration beam problem are found to be incomplete because lower frequencies could not be obtained. Presented herein is the exact characteristic equation for generating the complete vibration frequencies for the considered vibrating beam problem. Also the note treated for the first time such a tapered cantilever beam with a tip mass. The exact solutions (frequencies and mode shapes) are important to engineers designing such tapered beams and the results serve as benchmarks for assessing the validity, convergence and accuracy of numerical methods and solutions. © 2012 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.