The parametric instability on lateral bending vibrations of a spinning pretwisted beam under compressive axial pulsating forces is investigated. Equations of motion of the twisted beam are derived in the spinning twist coordinate frame using the Timoshenko beam theory and applying the Hamilton's principle. The finite element method is employed to discretize the equations of motion into time-dependent ordinary differential equations with gyroscopic terms. A set of second-order ordinary differential equations with periodic coefficients of Mathieu-Hill type is formed to obtain the boundary frequencies of instability regimes. The influence of twist angle, spinning speed, static component of axial force, aspect ratio and restraint condition on the instability regions of the spinning twisted Timoshenko beam is discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
