Asymptotic Analysis of the Free Vibration of a Cantilever Beam with a Fatigue Crack

In this paper the free vibration of a cantilever beam containing a breathing crack is investigated. Generally, the researchers have applied numerical methods to study the vibrational behavior of a cracked beam. In this research the governing equation of the motion for free vibration of the cracked beam is derived, and by applying suitable modifications and variable changes is expressed as the multiplication of a decaying exponential function by the Mathieu equation. By analyzing the parameters of the governing equation, this equation is solved by employing perturbation method. Presented method makes it possible to estimate damping characteristic of the system. The result shows that the system damping depends on the crack parameters, geometric dimensions, mechanical properties of the beam, and an increase in the crack depth results in an increase in the system damping. In order to validate the results, a comparison is made between the response of the cracked beam with a given crack depth and location obtained by the proposed analytical solution and that of the numerical method. Also, changes in fundamental frequency ratios versus crack severities are compared with those of the experimental results available in the literature. The obtained results from the proposed method agree well with the experimental results presented in the literature.