AERODYNAMICS AND AEROELASTICITY

Master in Mechanical Engineering

2022-2023

2. Rayleigh-Ritz method

Potential energy expression

corrected - 30/12/2021
Pedro Leal Ribeiro
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

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2.1 Rayleigh-Ritz method
• In Rayleigh-Ritz method, one tries to find good approximations to the
exact stationary values of Rayleigh’s quotient (i.e., to the squares of the
natural frequencies) .
U max (  ( x) )
• Write Rayleigh’s quotient as RQ (  ( x) ) = *
T (  ( x) )
where (x) is an approximation or trial function.
• Umax((x)) represents an approximation to the maximum potential
energy.
• T*((x)) represents an approximation to T*=Tmax/w2 where Tmax is the
maximum kinetic energy
• When an oscillation is harmonic: Tmax=Umax

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 n
• Function (x) is written as  ( x ) =  aii ( x )
i =1

where ai are unknown coefficients and i(x) are functions chosen by the
user.

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➢ Approximation functions i(x) should (mostly based on Petyt, 2010)
n
• be linearly independent, that is   ii ( x) = 0   i = 0, i = 1, 2, , n;
i =1

• have continuous, non-null, derivatives up to, at least, half the order of

the problem* (the order of the problem is the order of the highest
derivative with respect to x in the differential equation of motion);
• respect, at least, the geometric (also known as essential) boundary conditions;
• form a complete series, being here understood that a series of functions
is complete if the mean square error tends to zero as one increases the
2
number of functions L
 n

lim   V ( x ) −  ( aii ( x ) )  dx = 0
n→
0  i =1 
This is equivalent to say that the approximation converges to the exact
solution as more terms are used.
* Some authors allow for lower degree of continuity in the derivatives, one less than stated

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• To find the stationary values of Rayleigh’s quotient, one looks for the
conditions under which its variation is null
RQ (  ( x) ) RQ (  ( x) ) RQ (  ( x) )
RQ (  ( x) ) = a1 + a2 + ... + an = 0
a1 a2 an

• Coefficients ai are independent, hence Rayleigh’s quotient

U max (  ( x) )
RQ (  ( x) ) = is stationary if
T (  ( x) )
*

U T *
T * max − U max
RQ (  ( x) ) ai ai
=0  =0 i=1, 2, …, n
ai T *2

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• From the last equation, we obtain
U max U max T * i=1, 2, …, n
− * =0
ai T ai
𝑈𝑚𝑎𝑥 U max T *
• Which, making = 𝜆 becomes − =0 i=1, 2, …, n
𝑇∗
ai ai

• This approach leads to an eigenvalue problem that, using the stiffness, [K],
and mass, [M], matrices, is written as
( K  −   M )a = 0
• From which one obtains n approximations for n natural frequencies (𝜔𝑟 = 𝑟 )
and for the mode shapes of vibration (actually, for each mode r we compute ari,
i=1..n; to have the mode shape r it is still necessary to make n
 r ( x ) =  airi ( x )
i =1

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 2.2 Application to beam bending
Consider a beam without any additional elastic or inertia element; the
potential and kinetic energies are
2
 v   v ( x, t ) 
2 2
1
U =  EI  2 ( x, t )  dx 30/12/2021
Corrected 1
2 x  x T =   ( x) A( x)  dx
 2 0
 t 
Their maximum values when harmonics vibrations occur are approximated by
d i ( x ) 
2

2
 
n 2 n
1 1
U max =  E ( x ) I ( x )   ai 2  dx T = T =    ( x ) A ( x )   aii ( x )  dx
*

2 0  i =1 dx  2 0  i =1 
We need to obtain the terms of
U max T *
− =0
ai ai

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Making the derivatives
U max d 2r ( x )  n d 2i ( x ) 
=  E ( x) I ( x)   ai  dx
ar 0 2
dx  i =1 2
dx 

T *  n 
=   ( x ) A ( x )r ( x )   aii ( x )  dx
ar 0
 i =1 

Replacing in
U max T *
− =0 r=1, 2, …, n
ar ar
We obtain
( K  −   M )a = 0

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With each term of the stiffness and mass matrix respectively given by
d 2r ( x ) d 2i ( x )
kri =  E ( x ) I ( x ) 2 2
dx
0 dx dx

mri =   ( x ) A ( x )r ( x ) i ( x ) dx
0

It is recalled that additional terms may appear in kri and mri due to
supplementary elastic and inertia elements

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Differentiation of Umax; argument x of functions not written, to simplify the
notation
With respect to a1
U max 1  n d 2i    n d 2i 
= 2  EI   ai 2    ai 2  dx
a1 2 0  i =1 dx  a1  i =1 dx 

U max  n d 2i    d 21 d 22 

=  EI   ai 2   a1 2 + a2 2 + ....  dx
a1 0
 i =1 dx  a1  dx dx 
U max  n d 2i  d 21
 =  EI   ai 2  2 dx  a1 
a1 0
 i =1 dx  dx  
U max  d 21 d 21 d 2i d 21 d 2i d 21   
 =   EI 2 dx  EI 2 dx  EI 2 dx   ai 
a1  0 dx dx 2 0 dx dx 2 0 dx dx 2
 
 
• Above we have row 1 of the stiffness matrix multiplied by the vector of an 
unknown coefficients (the vector of generalised coordinates ai).

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With respect to an arbitrary aj

U max  d i   j
2 2
1 n d
= 2  EI   ai 2  2 dx
a j 2 0  i =1 dx  dx

U max  d 21 d i
2
 d 2
j
 =  EI  a1 2 + .... + ai 2 + ...  2 dx
a j 0
 dx dx  dx  a1 
 
U max  d 21 d  j d 2i d  j d 2n d  j   
2 2 2

 =   EI 2 dx  EI 2 dx  EI 2 dx   ai 
a j  0 dx dx 2 0 dx dx 2 0 dx dx 2
  
 
an 
• Above we have row j of the stiffness matrix multiplied by the vector of unknown
coefficients (the vector of generalised coordinates).

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 2.3 Example
The figure represents a clamped-hinged beam of length l, cross section with area A and second
moment of area I, material with Young’s modulus represented by E and mass density by . The
material that constitutes the beam is homogeneous and isotropic.

y
l
x

Figure 2.1 – Clamped-hinged beam

Using Rayleigh-Ritz method obtain approximations for the first two natural frequencies and natural
mode shapes of vibration. For that purpose, use, after verifying if they are adequate, the following
functions 𝑥 𝑥 2 𝑥 3 𝑥 𝑥 4 𝑥 3 𝑥
2
Φ1 = - Φ2 = −2 +
ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ

• Notice we have here a non-dimensional coordinate: x=x/l. We could work with x employing the chain rule in the
differentiations with respect to x and proceeding accordingly in the integrations: dx=ldx . In class, we used x.

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Representation of suggested approximation functions
𝑥 𝑥 2 𝑥 3
Φ1 ℓ = - ℓ
ℓ

1

4 3 2
𝑥 𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
Φ2 = −2 +
2 ℓ ℓ ℓ ℓ

It was verified in class that these functions satisfy the necessary requirements to be
applied in Rayleigh-Ritz method

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 • The stiffness and mass matrices are
 1 1 
4 0  105 280 
4 EI 
K  = 3  4 M  =  A  1 
0   1 
 5  280 630 

• To obtain the natural frequencies and natural mode shapes of vibration, solve
the following eigenvalue problem
 a1  0 
(  K  - w  M  )  a  = 0 
2

 2  

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 𝐸𝐼
• Approximation to first natural frequency of vibration 15.451
𝜌𝐴ℓ4

𝐸𝐼
Exact, analytical, solution 15.418 Relative error: 0.21 %
𝜌𝐴ℓ4

• Approximation to first mode shape of vibration

𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
a11=1.0000 a12=2.0249 u1 = 𝑎11 Φ1 +𝑎12 Φ2
ℓ ℓ ℓ

𝑥
u1 ℓ

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 𝐸𝐼
• Approximation to second natural frequency of vibration: 75.332 𝜌𝐴ℓ4
𝐸𝐼
Exact, analytical, solution: 49.965 Relative error: 51 %
𝜌𝐴ℓ4

• Approximation to second mode shape of vibration

𝑥 𝑥 𝑥
a21=1.0000 a22=-2.4693 u1 = 𝑎21 Φ1 +𝑎22 Φ2
ℓ ℓ ℓ

𝑥
u2 ℓ

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 Approximation to first mode of vibration

Approximation to second mode of vibration

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Bibliography
1. L. Meirovitch; Computational methods in structural dynamics, Alphen aan den
Rijn, The Netherlands, Sijthoff & Noordhoff, 1980.
2. Rao SS. Mechanical Vibrations in SI Units. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited,
2018.
3. Rodrigues J. D. Apontamentos de Vibrações de Sistemas Mecânicos, FEUP-
DEMec-SMAp, 2020 (in Portuguese).

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