Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology

MODELLING AND ANALYSIS LAB

Lab Assignment

Modal Analysis

Submitted By: Submitted to:

NEERAJ K Dr.Ravindranath
SC17B028 Adjunct Professor
B.Tech, Aerospace Dept. of Aerospace
Engineering Engineering.
IIST

December 2, 2019

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Problem Statement
Linear Modal or Free Vibration Analysis of a Cantilever Beam

Use the following elements for analysis :

– Beam element(2 noded) for 1D analysis.

– Shell element(4 noded) for 2D analysis.
– Brick element(8 noded)for 3D analysis.

Change the number of elements along the length of the beam and do a grid-convergence
study for all the three cases.

Compute the natural frequency for the first, second and third mode for all the above
cases.

Beam Specifications
Material used : Aluminium

Young’s Modulus : 7x1010 Pa

Poisson’s Ratio : 0.33

Dimensions : 100x2x2 cm3

Load applied = -100 N Density of

Aluminium = 2700

Linear Static Analysis

The analysis done is a linear vibration analysis. The following explanation can be given as to
why the analysis is linear. Consider the stiffness ’k’. It can be written as :
.

k = RRR (BTBD)dv
where , BT is the strain displacement matrix. D
is the constitutive matrix.

Non-linearity of matrix D is associated with the material non-linearity. In 1-D, D is the Young’s
Modulus which would be a function of the strain for the non-linear case.
On the other hand, the non-linearity of the matrix B is called the large deflection nonlinearity.

But for this analysis, both B and D matrices are linear and hence the linear analysis.

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Theory
When the force, P, is removed from a displaced beam, the beam will return to its original
shape. However, inertia of the beam will cause the beam to vibrate around that initial location.
Assuming the elastic modulus, inertia, and cross sectional area (A) are constant along the
beam length, the equation for that vibration is

=0 (1)
where, λm = ρA is the mass density of the cantilever beam.
Variable separation is the assumed solution for Eqn(1). Therefore, we have

v(x,t) = X(x)T(t)

Using this in the above equation, we get

=0 (2)
Solution for displacement is

X(x) = C1Cos(xλ) + C2Sin(xλ) + C3Cosh(xλ) + C4Sinh(xλ) (3)

where
From the boundary conditions of fixed-free, we get

C2 = −C4

C1 = −C3

Solving for C1 and C2,

Cos(βL)Cosh(βL) = −1

The roots of this equations are

(4)
The equation of time is therefore :

] (5)
So the frequency in rad/s is :

(6)
Natural Frequency in Hz is therefore :

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 (7)
n Theoretical Natural Frequency (f)
βn

1 1.570796327 11.54282477

2 4.71238898 103.8854229

3 7.853981634 288.5706192

4 10.99557429 565.5984136

5 14.13716694 934.9688062

Table 1: Natural Frequency for Different modes

Compressive stresses soften the structure unlike the tensile forces. The non-linear
vibrations are due to stress stiffeneing effects. Also, tensile stress increases the
stiffness. Because, stiffness is increased for the same mass, the natural frequency of the
system hence increases. The natural frequencies are most important property of any
mechanical system. This is because the natural frequencies coincide (almost) with the
system’s resonant frequencies.If a time varying force is applied to the system, and choose the
frequency of the force to be equal to one of the natural frequencies,very large amplitude
vibrations are observed.
While designing a structure or component,it is necessary to choose the operating
frequencies very carefully. We need to operate at frequencies lower than the natural
frequencies of the system to avoid resonance.

1-D Analysis
The element selected was Beam-188 which is a 2-noded element. The load was applied axially
on the free side of a fixed free column. The number of elements were increased from 2 to 64
and the convergence of the solution was observed.
n 1st Mode 2nd Mode 3rd Mode

2 16.641 160.7 740.68

4 16.522 117.47 423.06

8 16.466 106.42 317.17

16 16.45 103.74 294.36

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 32 16.446 103.08 288.92

64 16.445 102.98 287.58

Table 2: Natural Frequencies for different elements for the first 3 modes for a beam element
from ANSYS APDL

The following images shows some of the natural frequency modes for a beam element.

Figure 1: First mode of free vibration of a beam element with 32 elements.

Figure 2: Second mode of free vibration of a beam element with 32 elements.

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 Figure 3: Third mode of free vibration of a beam element with 32 elements.

Figure 4: This image shows the deflection of the beam during vibration at 3rd mode of natural
frequency

To check the convergence rate of different modes as number of elements increases, the
following image is plotted.

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 Figure 5: Convergence of different modes to the theoretical solution

2-D Analysis
The element selected was Shell-181 which is a 4-noded element.The thickness of the shell
element which is 0.02m was set. The load was carefully applied. At the end points,P/4 each
was applied and a load of P/2 was applied. The number of elements were increased from 2 to
64 and the convergence of the solution was observed.
n First Mode Second Mode Third Mode

2 16.986 189.16 601.39

4 16.679 121.8 463.67

8 16.537 107.3 304.5

16 16.486 104.06 295.74

32 16.467 103.23 289.44

64 16.46 103.01 287.86
Table 3: Natural Frequencies for different elements for the first 3 modes for a Shell element
from ANSYS APDL

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The following images the natural frequency modes of the shell element :

Figure 6: First mode of free vibration of a shell element with 16 elements.

Figure 7: Second mode of free vibration of a shell element with 32 elements.

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 Figure 8: Third mode of free vibration of a shell element with 32 elements.

Figure 9: This image shows the deflection of the beam during vibration at 3rd mode of natural
frequency

To check the convergence rate of different modes as number of elements increases, the
following image is plotted.

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 Figure 10: Convergence of different modes to the theoretical solution for the Shell element

3-D Analysis
The element selected was Brick-185 which is a 8-noded element. The load was carefully
applied.The load was distributed such that each quadrant on the crosssection had a total load
of P/4.. The number of elements were increased from 2 to 64 and the convergence of the
solution was observed.
n First Mode Second Mode Third Mode

2 17.936 196.22 800.67

4 17.185 125.45 487.71

8 16.795 109.16 329.68

16 16.615 104.93 298.67

32 16.531 103.66 290.84

64 16.491 103.23 288.6

Table 4: Natural Frequencies for different elements for the first 3 modes for a Brick element
from ANSYS APDL

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The following images show the natural frequencies of different modes of the 3D element :

Figure 11: First mode of free vibration of a shell element with 16 elements.

Figure 12: Second mode of free vibration of a shell element with 32 elements.

Figure 13: Third mode of free vibration of a shell element with 32 elements.

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Figure 14: This image shows the deflection of the beam during vibration at 3rd mode of
natural frequency

To check the convergence rate of different modes as number of elements increases, the
following image is plotted.

Figure 15: Convergence of different modes to the theoretical solution for the Brick element

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Inferences
As the number of the elements increases, the solution obtained from the finite element
analysis converges to that of the analytical solution given by eqn(7).

From the analysis, it is observed that the beam element converges faster than the shell
or brick element to the analytical solution. This can be seen fom the following image :

Figure 16: Convergence of first mode of natural frequency for different types of elements used

The natural frequency of the beam depends on the boundary conditions. The natural
frequency for fixed-free beam is not he same as the simply supported beam.

The stiffness of the support does not effect the natural frequency of the system.

From eqn(7), it can be seen that beams with higher Young’s Modulus have a higher
natural frequency mode.

Also, if the length of the beam increases, the natural frequency of the beam decreases.

All the above factors have to taken care of, before designing a beam for any application.

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