Nonlinear vibration analysis of a type of tapered cantilever beams by using an analytical approximate method

In this paper, an alternative analytical method is presented to evaluate the nonlinear vibration behavior of single and double tapered cantilever beams. The admissible lateral displacement function satisfying the geometric boundary conditions of a single or double tapered cantilever beam is derived by using Rayleigh-Ritz method. Based on the Lagrange method and the Newton Harmonic Balance (NHB) method, analytical approximate solutions in closed and explicit form are obtained. These approximate solutions show excellent agreement with those of numeric method for small as well as large amplitude. Moreover, due to brevity of expressions, the present analytical approximate solutions are convenient to investigate effects of various parameters on the large amplitude vibration response of tapered beams.