Dynamic stiffness approach to vibration transmission within a beam structure carrying spring–mass systems

The dynamic stiffness method is developed for the dynamics of a beam structure carrying multiple spring−mass systems. Based on classical Bernoulli–Euler beam theory, three types of vibrations, namely, bending, longitudinal and torsional motions, are formulated in terms of dynamic stiffness matrix. Similar to finite element technique, the local dynamic stiffness matrices for individual beams and spring−mass systems are assembled into global dynamic stiffness matrices so as to address vibration transmission from machines to flexible beamlike foundations. Using our proposed method, the vibration transmission within a beam frame, carrying multiple spring−mass systems is addressed. Through numerical analysis, the calculated vibration responses agree well with those from finite element method, which demonstrates that dynamic stiffness formulation has great potential in modeling the dynamics of built-up beam structures that supports machinery, especially in characterizing vibration isolation due to wave reflections, wave conversions, and other underlying mechanisms.