Template:Equations for a beam

There are various beam theories that can be used to describe the motion of the beam. The simplest theory is the Bernoulli-Euler Beam theory (other beam theories include the Timoshenko Beam theory and Reddy-Bickford Beam theory where shear deformation of higher order is considered). For a Bernoulli-Euler Beam, the equation of motion is given by the following

[math]\displaystyle{ \partial_x^2\left(D(x)\partial_x^2 \zeta\right) + m(x) \partial_t^2 \zeta = p }[/math]

where [math]\displaystyle{ D = EI }[/math] is the flexural rigidity ([math]\displaystyle{ E }[/math] is the Young's modulus, [math]\displaystyle{ I }[/math] is the moment of inertia), [math]\displaystyle{ m }[/math] is the mass per unit length. [math]\displaystyle{ h }[/math] is the thickness of the plate), [math]\displaystyle{ p }[/math] is the pressure and [math]\displaystyle{ \zeta }[/math] is the plate vertical displacement. Note that this equations simplifies if the plate has constant properties.

The edges of the plate can satisfy a range of boundary conditions. The natural boundary condition (i.e. free-edge boundary conditions).

[math]\displaystyle{ \partial_x^2 \zeta = 0, \,\,\partial_x^3 \zeta = 0 }[/math]

at the edges of the plate.

The problem is subject to the initial conditions

[math]\displaystyle{ \zeta(x,0)=f(x) \,\! }[/math]

[math]\displaystyle{ \partial_t \zeta(x,0)=g(x) }[/math]