Abstract. This paper deals with the vibration of tapered column which is affected by gravity using a pseudospectral formulation. The formulation is simple and easy-to-implement and is capable of dealing with different end conditions. Numerical examples of the effects of taper, cross section shapes and gravity on the vibration of columns are illustrated. The effectiveness of the pseudospectral method for vibration analysis of tapered heavy columns is validated by comparing the results with numerical techniques such as the numerical initial value method and differential quadrature method.

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