An evolutionary search technique to determine natural frequencies and mode shapes of composite Timoshenko beams

Natural frequencies and mode shapes of composite Timoshenko beams are determined by a diversity guided evolutionary algorithm (DGEA) with different boundary conditions. After applying boundary conditions, frequency equation is obtained in determinant form. Then, natural frequencies and consequently mode shapes are obtained using DGEA where the absolute value of determinant is the subject of optimization. Advantages of employing DGEA are: first, all natural frequencies are produced in a simple run, second, its simplicity for implementation and third, the procedure is not computationally prohibitive. Results clearly show the applicability of the proposed method for obtaining natural frequencies and mode shapes.