Shear deformable bars of doubly symmetrical cross section under nonlinear nonuniform torsional vibrations-application to torsional postbuckling configurations and primary resonance excitations

In this paper a boundary element method is developed for the nonuniform torsional vibration problem of bars of arbitrary doubly symmetric constant cross section, taking into account the effects of geometrical nonlinearity (finite displacement-small strain theory) and secondary twisting moment deformation. The bar is subjected to arbitrarily distributed or concentrated conservative dynamic twisting and warping moments along its length, while its edges are subjected to the most general axial and torsional (twisting and warping) boundary conditions. The resulting coupling effect between twisting and axial displacement components is also considered and a constant along the bar compressive axial load is induced so as to investigate the dynamic response at the (torsional) postbuckled state. The bar is assumed to be adequately laterally supported so that it does not exhibit any flexural or flexural-torsional behavior. A coupled nonlinear initial boundary value problem with respect to the variable along the bar angle of twist and to an independent warping parameter is formulated. The resulting equations are further combined to yield a single partial differential equation with respect to the angle of twist. The problem is numerically solved employing the Analog Equation Method (AEM), a BEM based method, leading to a system of nonlinear Differential-Algebraic Equations (DAE). The main purpose of the present contribution is twofold: (i) comparison of both the governing differential equations and the numerical results of linear or nonlinear free or forced vibrations of bars ignoring or taking into account the secondary twisting moment deformation effect (STMDE) and (ii) numerical investigation of linear or nonlinear free vibrations of bars at torsional postbuckling configurations. Numerical results are worked out to illustrate the method, demonstrate its efficiency and wherever possible its accuracy.