Control of natural frequency of beams using different pre-tensioning cable patterns

Steel cable is utilized in this research to control the natural frequency of beam due to its important advantages such as low weight, small cross-sectional area and high tensile strength. In this study, for the first time, theoretical relations are developed to calculate the increase in pre-tensioning force of steel cables under external loading based on the method of least work. Moreover, the natural frequency of steel beams with different support conditions without cable and with different patterns of cable is calculated based on Rayleigh’s method. To verify the theoretical relations, the steel beam is modeled in the finite element ABAQUS software with different support conditions without cable and with different cable patterns. The obtained results show that the theoretical relations can appropriately predict the natural frequency of beams with different support conditions and different cable patterns. In this study, simply supported as well as fixed supported beams are pre-stressed with v-shaped and modified v-shaped patterns of the cable. According to the obtained results, the modified v-shaped pattern of the cable is more efficient than the v-shaped pattern one. Furthermore, the effects of the length of horizontal cables on the natural frequency are studied.