Modal characteristics of cracked thin walled unsymmetrical cross-sectional steel beams curved in plan

The paper aims to develop a generalized Finite Element (FE) model for multiple cracked thin-walled curved beams by taking account of the warping effects in the cracked section. Modal features such as natural frequencies and mode shapes for cracked and uncracked curved beam have been presented for sections having one axis of symmetry and with no axis of symmetry for various crack parameters. Theoretical results have been validated by laboratory vibration test on steel channel and angle section beams. The study reveals that cracked curved thin-walled beams behave differently under vibratory load compared to that with straight beams.