Stability of axially accelerating viscoelastic beams: multi-scale analysis with numerical confirmations

Stability is investigated for an axially accelerating viscoelastic beam. The material time derivative is used in the viscoelastic constitutive relation, not simply the partial time derivative. The method of multiple scales is applied directly to the governing equation without discretization. When the axial speed is characterized as a simple harmonic variation about the constant mean speed, the instability conditions are presented for axially accelerating viscoelastic beams constrained by simple supports with rotational springs in parametric resonance. The finite difference schemes are developed to solve numerically the equation of axially accelerating viscoelastic beams with fixed supports for the instability regions in the principal parametric resonance. The numerical calculations confirm the analytical results. Numerical examples show the effects of the constraint stiffness, the mean axial speed, and the viscoelasticity. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.