Multilayered Inhomogeneous Beams under Torsion and Bending: An Analytical Study of Energy Dissipation

Abstract

The present theoretical paper is devoted to the problem of energy dissipation in multilayered inhomogeneous beam structures of visoelastic behaviour. In particular, our attention is concentrated on studying the energy dissipation for the case of a beam that is loaded simultaneously in torsion and bending. Both torsion and bending moments which are applied on the beam change with time so that the angles of twist and rotation of the beam end vary continuously with time. The viscoelastic mechanical behaviour of the beam under torsion is treated by a viscoelastic model that has two linear springs and a linear dashpot. The model is under time-dependent shear stress. The viscoelastic behaviour of the beam under bending is modelled in a similar way. An analytical approach of deriving the energy dissipation is applied. The approach treats a multilayered beam that has an arbitrary number of layers of different thicknesses and material properties. The layers are longitudinally inhomogeneous. An investigation of the energy dissipation is carried-out to clarify the effect of the parameters of the time-dependent bending and torsion moments, the material inhomogeneity and the beam size on the energy dissipation.