Many actual systems encountered in the real life are modeled
in the technical literature as Bernoulli–Euler beams subject
to various supporting conditions with helical spring-(damper)-
mass attachments. However, in these applications, helical springs
are frequently assumed to be massless. In recent years, efforts
have been made to account for the masses of the springs in
the context of the free vibrations of the aforementioned systems.
Further to these studies, the present work is concerned
with the investigation of the effect of not considering the own
mass of the helical springs in the combined systems above during
their forced vibrations. The system investigated in the present
study consists of a cantilever beam with a tip mass to which a
visco-elastic (Kelvin–Voigt model) helical spring-mass is attached
in-span. In order to account for the own mass of the helical
spring, it is modeled as a longitudinally vibrating visco-elastic rod
such that a combined system consisting of two vibrating continua
is obtained. The beam is assumed to be subject to a harmonic
forcing at an in-span location. The FRF’s are established for the
combined system described above and for the massless spring
case.