Free vibration and lateral buckling of a cantilever slender beam with an edge crack: Experimental and numerical studies

The effects of crack ratios and positions on the fundamental frequencies and buckling loads of slender cantilever Euler beams with a single-edge crack are investigated both experimentally and numerically using the finite element method, based on energy approach. The governing matrix equations are derived from the standard and cracked beam elements combined with the local flexibility concept. The experiments are conducted using specimens having edge cracks of different depths at different positions to validate the numerical results obtained. The numerical results are shown to be in good agreement with the experimental results for the considered crack ratios.