A new approach for free vibration analysis of nonuniform tall building structures with axial force effects

Dynamic analysis of beam‐like structures is significantly important in modeling actual cases such as tall buildings and several other related applications as well. This article studies free vibration analysis of tall buildings with nonuniform cross‐section structures. A novel and simple approach is presented to solve natural frequencies of free vibration of cantilevered tall structures with variable flexural rigidity and mass densities. These systems could be replaced by a cantilever Timoshenko beam with varying cross‐sections. The governing partial differential equation for vibration of a nonuniform Timoshenko beam under variable axial loads is transformed with varying coefficients to its weak form of integral equations. Natural frequencies can be determined by requiring the resulting integral equation, which has a nontrivial solution. The presented method in this study has fast convergence. Including high accuracy for the obtained numerical results as well. Numerical examples including framed tube as well as tube‐in‐tube structures are carried out in the study and compared with available results in the literature, and also with the results obtained from finite element analysis in order to show the accuracy of the proposed method in the study. Obtained results indicate that the presented method in this study is powerful enough for the free vibration analysis of tall buildings.