Vibration of Elastic Beams in the Presence of an Inviscid Fluid Medium

The physical interaction of fluids and solids is of practical significance in engineering (e.g. flutter of aerodynamic structures, vortex induced vibrations of sub-sea pipelines and risers, inflatable dams, parachute dynamics and blood flow through arteries). In this paper, a finite element formulation is developed for determining the vibration characteristics of beams in contact with inviscid incompressible fluid. The classical, first_order and third-order shear deformation beam theories are used to model the structural response. Numerical results for vibration frequencies are presented showing the parametric effect of thickness and immersion depth on the frequency response. The results indicate that the presence of fluid interaction has significant effect on the dynamic response. The formulation presented herein is also applicable to a vast number of vibration problems related to beams under a variety of excitations.