A Finite Element Study of the Bending Behavior of Beams Resting on Two-Parameter Elastic Foundation
Tomme: LII (LVI) Fascicle: 3-4 | 2006
Pages: 7-20
Abstract text:
Although the Winkler’s model is a poor representation of the many practical subgrade or subbase materials, it is widely used in soil-structure problems for almost one and a half century. The foundations represented by Winkler model can not sustain shear stresses, and hence discontinuity of adjacent spring displacements can occur. This is the prime shortcoming of this foundation model which in practical applications may result in significant inaccuracies in the evaluated structural response. In order to overcome these problem many researchers have been proposed various mechanical foundation models considering interaction with the surroundings. Among them we shall mention the class of two-parameter foundations -- named like this because they have the second parameter which introduces interactions between adjacent springs, in addition to the first parameter from the ordinary Winkler’s model. This class of models includes Filonenko-Borodich, Pasternak, generalized, and Vlasov foundations. Mathematically, the equations to describe the reaction of the two-parameter foundations arc equilibrium ones, and the only difference is the definition of the parameters. For the convenience of discussion, the Pasternak foundation is adopted in present paper. In order to analyse the bending behavior of a Euler-Bernoulli beam resting on two-parameter elastic foundation a (displacement) Finite Element (FE) formulation, based on the cubic displacement function of the governing differential equation, is introduced. The resulting effects of shear stiffness of the Pasternak model on the mechanical quantities are discussed in comparison with those of the Winkler’s model. Some numerical case studies illustrate the accuracy of the formulation and the importance of the soil shearing effect in the vertical direction, associated with continuous elastic foundation.
Key Words:
-
Author(s) Information
All documents with a 
icon require
Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer
