A Galerkin-type state-space approach for transverse vibrations of slender double-beam systems with viscoelastic inner layer

A novel state-space form for studying transverse vibrations of double-beam systems, made of two outer elastic beams continuously joined by an inner viscoelastic layer, is presented and numerically validated. As opposite to other methods available in the literature, the proposed technique enables one to consider (i) inhomogeneous systems, (ii) any boundary conditions and (iii) rate-dependent constitutive law for the inner layer. The formulation is developed by means of Galerkin-type approximations for the fields of transverse displacements in the system. Numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed approach is accurate and versatile, and lends itself to be used for both frequency- and time-domain analyses.

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► Double-beam systems are made of two beams continuously connected by an inner layer.
► Damping mechanics are viscous for the outer beams, viscoelastic for the inner layer.
► Galerkin-type representation of the kinematics allows any type of boundary conditions.
► An enlarged state-space approach is used to study the damped vibrations of the system.
► The proposed approach proves to be computationally efficient, accurate and versatile.