Longitudinal vibration of a continuous cracked bar

A continuous cracked bar vibration theory is developed for longitudinal vibration of rods with an edge crack. The Hu–Washizu–Barr variational formulation was used to develop the differential equation and the boundary conditions of the cracked bar as a one-dimensional continuum. The crack was modelled as a continuous flexibility using the displacement field in the vicinity of the crack found with fracture mechanics methods.

The results of three independent evaluations of the lowest natural frequency of longitudinal vibrations of a bar with a single edge crack are presented: the continuous cracked bar vibration theory, the lumped crack bar vibration analysis, and experimental results obtained on aluminum bars with fatigue cracks. Experimental results fall between the values predicted by the two analytical methods. Moreover, the continuous bar theory agrees better with the experimental results than the lumped crack flexibility theory for small cracks. For larger cracks, a/h>0.4, experimentation was difficult due to the co-existence of several coupled modes and no reliable results could be obtained.