Analytical Model for Beams on Elastic Foundations

Considering the Coupling of Horizontal and

Vertical Displacements

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Qijian Liu1 and Jianjun Ma2

Abstract: An analytical method is introduced to deal with the coupling problem for Euler-Bernoulli beams on elastic bidimensional foundations by considering the horizontal and vertical displacements of the beam-foundation system. The approach is an extension of the modied
Vlasov model. With separation of the variables, the horizontal and vertical displacements are expressed as the displacement function at the
ground surface and the attenuation function along the depth of the foundations, respectively. The governing equations and the corresponding
boundary conditions of the model are obtained via the variational principle. Then, the differential operator method is used to uncouple the governing equations and boundary conditions. An iterative procedure is executed to accomplish the numerical implementation. A parametric study
is conducted to illustrate the effects of the applied loadings and the physical and geometry properties on the static responses of the beam and
foundations. The numerical results show that the coupling elasticity should be taken into account in cases of exible beams and high soil Poisson ratios. Moreover, the horizontal loads on the beam signicantly affect the response of the beam-foundation system. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)
EM.1943-7889.0000635. 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
CE Database subject headings: Beams; Elastic foundations; Coupling; Elasticity; Displacement; Analytical techniques.
Author keywords: Beams on elastic foundations; Variational principle; Foundation model; Coupling elasticity; Differential operator method.

Introduction
The theory of beams on elastic foundations plays an important role
in the analysis of soil-structure interaction problems, such as in relation to applications pertaining to the foundation engineering of
buildings, railroad tracks, pile foundations, and excavation engineering. In the past, research has been undertaken to construct analytical models of beams on elastic foundations (Selvadurai 1979).
A review of foundation models was performed by Dutta and Roy
(2002). Most probably, the oldest model used to simulate beams on
elastic foundations is the Winkler (1867) model. Theoretically, the
main characteristic of the Winkler model is that the underlying
foundations are assumed to be simulated as a series of independent
linear springs rested by the beam.
The Winkler model has been widely used in engineering practice
because of its simplicity (Hetenyi 1946). However, the Winkler
model cannot consider the continuity of elastic foundations because
the foundation displacement at a point is dependent only on the
force acting on the point in this model. Meanwhile, it is not easy to
determine the spring constant in the Winkler model because its value
is not unique for a certain type of soil. Therefore, to overcome the
weakness of Winkler model, several kinds of generalizations of the
1
Associate Professor, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ.,
Changsha, Hunan 410082, P.R. China (corresponding author). E-mail:
Q.Liu@hnu.edu.cn
2
Doctoral Candidate, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ.,
Changsha, Hunan 410082, P.R. China. E-mail: majianjun@hnu.edu.cn
Note. This manuscript was submitted on July 5, 2012; approved on
March 18, 2013; published online on March 20, 2013. Discussion period
open until May 1, 2014; separate discussions must be submitted for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 139, No. 12, December 1, 2013. ASCE, ISSN 0733-9399/2013/
12-17571768/$25.00.

Winkler model have been developed as two-parameter foundation

models in the past few decades by Filonenko-Borodich (1940),
Pasternak (1954), and Vlasov and Leontev (1966). The two-parameter
models have been widely used to solve the elastic foundation problem
(Feng and Cook 1983; Nogami and ONeill 1985; Nogami and Lam
1987; Mordis and Avramidis 2002). Moreover, another category of
generalized models is the so-called three-parameter models (Hetenyi
1950; Reissner 1958; Kerr 1965). As a typical three-parameter model,
the Kerr foundation model has been proved to be identical to the
Vlasov model based on the choice of the attenuation prole (Jones
and Xenophontos 1976). In terms of the Kerr model, the bending and
stiffness of beams on elastic foundations have been investigated
(Avramidis and Mordis 2006; Mordis 2007). Furthermore, Di
Paola et al. (2009) showed that elastic foundation models may be
referred to as gradient models, which involve some nonlocality. On
the basis of the variational formulation of the Reissner model,
Challamel et al. (2010) investigated the buckling of an axially loaded
Euler-Bernoulli model supported on an elastic nonlocal medium.
In the generalizations of the Winkler model, the classical Vlasov
model starts from continuum theory on the basis of the variational
principle. Therefore, it has a plausible theoretical basis, and the
characteristic constants in the model can be expressed by the material properties. However, to determine the two characteristic parameters in the Vlasov model, an arbitrary parameter g should be
introduced to characterize the distribution of the vertical displacement prole in advance. Based on variational calculus, Jones and
Xenophontos (1977) investigated the response of a plate on elastic
foundations and established a relationship between parameter g and
the displacement of the resting plate. Vallabhan and Das (1988,
1991a, b) developed an iterative procedure to determine the value
of g, and the procedure is referred to the modied Vlasov model.
In the modied Vlasov model, attenuation of the vertical displacement prole of foundations is coupled with the conguration of the
beam.

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Obviously, only the vertical component of the total displacements is considered in the models mentioned previously. Thus, the
horizontal component cannot be fully justied. In practical engineering the horizontal displacement should be taken into account
under many conditions, such as in foundations with a high Poisson
ratio and beams subjected to horizontal loads. To the best knowledge
of the authors, there have only been a few models that take into
account coupling of horizontal and vertical displacements of beamfoundation systems (Rao et al. 1971). However, the method is based
on the classical Vlasov model and the same weakness of the determination of the attenuation functions cannot be overcome.
In this study, an analytical solution of beams on elastic foundations involving the coupling of horizontal and vertical displacements
has been developed. First, the horizontal and vertical displacements
are expressed as the separation of a displacement function at the
surface and an attenuation function along the depth of foundations,
respectively. Then, the governing equations for the displacement
and attenuation functions in the model are obtained and coupled
using variational calculus. The differential operator method is chosen to decouple the governing equations. Following Vallabhan and
Das (1988, 1991a, b), an iterative procedure is executed to accomplish the numerical implementation. Finally, a parametric study
is performed to investigate the static responses of the beam and
foundations under the combined effects of horizontal and vertical
loadings. The present approach may be regarded as an extension of
the modied Vlasov model in the framework of the elastic soilstructure interaction.

Mathematical Model

In this study, the beam is assumed to be perfectly connected to the

foundations; i.e., there is no slippage or separation along the beamfoundation interface. From the elasticity, the horizontal and vertical
displacements, ux, z and wx, z, can be expressed in the full-basis
discrete form as (Nogami and ONeill 1985)
ux, z

un xfn z

(1a)

wn xcn z

(1b)

n1

wx, z

P
n1

where un x and wn x 5 nth displacement functions along the

x-direction at ground surface z 5 0, corresponding to ux, z and
wx, z, respectively; and fn z and cn z are chosen as the nth
nondimensional attenuation functions representing the variations
of the foundation displacements of ux, z and wx, z along the
z-direction, respectively.
Basically, the solution for each n may be superimposed to yield
the complete results for the displacements. In general, the main
nature of the displacement of the beam-foundation system can be
obtained by the rst-order truncation (n 5 1) as
ux, z uxfz

(2a)

wx, z wxcz

(2b)

where attenuation functions fz and cz should satisfy the following boundary conditions:

Displacement Model
The basic model of beams on elastic foundations is depicted in
Fig. 1. Attention is focused on the static response of an innitely long
slab of nite width resting on an elastic foundation of thickness H in
plane strain conditions. The elastic foundations are assumed to be
isotropic and homogeneous. The Youngs modulus and Poisson
ratio of the foundations are Es and ns , and its Lam constants are ls
and ms , respectively. Here, a strip of the slab can be considered as
a beam of width b, height h, and length L. The Youngs modulus and
Poisson ratio of the beam are E and n, respectively. The beam is
subjected to distributed horizontal and vertical loads, px and qx.
For the foundation, the eld displacements are denoted as ux, z and
wx, z along the x- and z-directions, respectively. A Cartesian
coordinate system o-xyz is chosen, with the origin o placed at the left
end of the beam, as shown in Fig. 1.

f0 c0 1

(3a)

fH cH 0

(3b)

It may be easily concluded from Eqs. (3a) and (3b) that the horizontal and vertical displacements at surface z 5 0 is assumed to be
ux, 0 5 ux and wx, 0 5 wx. Based on the assumption of the
perfectly bonded beam-foundation interface the displacements of
the beam should be chosen as ux and wx along the region of the
beam length.
Principle of Minimum Potential Energy
To obtain the governing equations of the static response of the beam
and foundation, the principle of minimum potential energy is used.
The minimum potential energy function, P, of the beam-foundation
system is
P Ubeam Usoil 2 Wload

(4)

where Ubeam 5 potential energy of the beam; Usoil 5 potential energy

of the foundations; and Wload 5 virtual work done by the conservative forces.
Potential energy Ubeam can be expressed as

2
L  2
EI d2 w
EA du

dx
dx
2 dx2
2 dx
L

Fig. 1. Beam resting on the elastic foundation

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Ubeam

(5)

where d 5 variation. The term, dUbeam , can be attained by applying

the variation of Eq. (5) as

and potential energy Usoil can be also written as

Usoil


sij ij dx dz



L
d2
d2 w
d2 u
EI 2 dw dx 2 EA 2 du dx

dx
dx
dx2
L

(6)
dUbeam

2 0

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where sij and ij i, j 5 1, 2 5 components of the stresses and strains

of the foundations, which can be expressed by the displacements
according to the elasticity.
Virtual work Wload done by the conservative forces is
L

Similarly, dWload can be determined from the variation of Eq. (7) as

Wload qxwxdx pxuxdx

0


 L 
L
2
2
d
w
ddw
d
d
w
2
EI 2 dw EA du du
EI 2
dx dx
dx
dx
dx
0
0
(9)


(7)

dWload qxdw dx pxdu dx

(10)

Applying the principle of minimum potential energy to Eq. (4) gives

dP dUbeam dUsoil 2 dWload 0

H
dUsoil
0 2

 2

ls b du
n0 dx

H
2
0 2
H

0 2

0 2

d2 w
dw dx dz 2
dx2


ls b 2 du
f dz du
n0
dx

H

dc dw
du dx dz
ls bf
dz dx

0 2

ls bw
0 2

du dc
df dx dz
dx dz

H
 2

ls b dc
ls b 2 d2 c
w dw dx dz 2
w 2 dc dx dz
n0 dz
n0
dz
0 2

ms bc2 dz

dw
dw
dx

ms bc
0 2

ls bw

H

ms bc
0

df du
dW dx dz 2
dz dx

ms bu
0 2

ls bf

df
dz u dw
dz

0 2

dc
dz w du
dz


dw
dx c df
ms bu
dz


H


d2 f
dw dc
df dx dz 2
ms bu2 2 df dx dz
dz dz
dz

du
dx f dc
dx

0 2

H  H

0 2

0 2

0 2

dc du
dw dx dz
ls bf
dz dx

0 2

H

ls b 2 d2 u
f 2 du dx dz
n0
dx

H
H
 2
 
 2


H
df
df dw
df
ms b dw cdc dx dz
ms bu dw
ms bc
ms b
u du dx dz
du dx dz
dc dx dz
dz
dz dz
dz dx
dz

ms bc2
0 2

fdf dx dz 2

du df
dc dx dz 2
ls bw
dx dz

Likewise, substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (6) and performing some
integrations by parts, dUsoil is given by

(8)

H
ls b 2 dc
w dx dc
n0
dz

H 

H

ms bu2 dx
2

df
df
dz
0

(11)

Eq. (11) shows that the variation of the potential energy of soil,
dUsoil , is very complex and involves the displacement and attenuation functions. For example, the third term in Eq. (11) contains
three parts. The rst part is the constant ls b. The second part is
H
the integral 0 fdc=dzdz, which can be regarded as the attenuation
of the displacement functions. The third part is the integral
2 du=dxdw dx, which involves the variation of displacement
function wx and the derivative of horizontal displacement function

ux. Thus, the second part involves the coupling of attenuation

functions f and c, whereas the third part involves the coupling of
displacement functions u and w. Therefore, Eq. (11) indicates that
the displacement and attenuation functions are coupled to each other.
To further investigate the horizontal and vertical coupling in the soilfoundation system, the displacement and attenuation functions in
Eq. (11) are separated, in which some coefcients hi i 5 1, . . . ,12
are introduced, as given in Table 1. Thus, Eq. (11) can be rewritten as

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H
dUsoil

h1 f df dz 2
2

H
2

dc
h8 df dz 2
dz

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dc
df
du
dw
h3 dw dx h4 df dz 2 h4 dc dz 2
h3 du dx
h5 w dw dx
dx
dx
dz
dz
0

2
d2 c
df
dw
d
w
h6 2 dc dz h7 c dc dz h8 dc dz
h9 du dx
h10 u du dx2
h11 2 dw dx 2
h9 du dw dx
dx
dx
dx
dz
dz

2
h2 d u2 du dx
dx

H
h12
0

h9 u dw2

H
df
h12 df
dz
0


h8 c dfH
0

(12)

For convenience of expression, the following nondimensional variables are introduced:

xp x ;
L

up u ;
L

wp w
L

d4 wB
d2 w
du
2 r1 2B r2 wB r3 B Q
4
dx
dx
dx

(14)

d2 uB
dw
2 s1 uB s2 B P
dx2
dx

(15)

where ri i 5 1, 2, 3 and sj j 5 1, 2 5 coefcients as follows:

Table 1. Coefcients in Eq. (12)

h2
h3
h4
h5
h6
h7
h8
h9
h10
h11
h12
Note: n0 5 ns =1 2 ns .

Expression

2 ls b=n 0 du=dx
H
2
0 ls b=n 0 f dz

H
0

r1

h11 L2
;
EI

s2

h3 2 h9 L
;
h2 EA

(13)

In the subsequent analysis, the asterisk will be implied and extracted

for simplicity. Because u and w are the horizontal and vertical
displacements along the surface z 5 0, uB and wB are used to represent the displacement components of the beam for 0 # x # 1,
whereas uS and wS represent the ground surface for 2 , x , 0 and
1 , x , . For region 0 # x # 1, by substituting Eqs. (9)(12) into
Eq. (8) and collecting the coefcients of du and dw, the governing
equations of the displacement functions may be obtained as

h1

H h

i
i
h
d2 f
dc
du
dw
H

du
dw
dc
df
dz

h
f
dc

h
w
du

h
2
4
3
6
11
0
2
dx
dx
dz2
dz
2
2
0

Governing Equations of the Displacement

Coefcient

dx

r3

qxL3
;
EI

h3 2 h9 L3
;
EI
P

s1

h10 L2
;
h2 EA

pxL
h2 EA

Further investigation of governing Eqs. (14) and (15) of wB and

uB is of interest. It may be concluded that the proposed model is the
generalization of some available foundation models in the absence of
horizontal displacement uB . For example, if r1 5 0, Eq. (14) is restored to the model for bending of the beam on Winkler foundations.
Meanwhile, if the values of r1 and r2 are not equal to zero, Eq. (14) is
understood and generalized to be the governing equation of the beam
in the Pasternak or classical and modied Vlasov models. Moreover,
Eq. (14) has the same expression as the so-called three-parameter
foundation models (such as the Kerr model), provided that their
coefcients in the differential equations are assumed to be identical.
It is also expected that the present model may display the same form
as the Reissner model if it is extended to modeling the slabfoundation interface. Of interest is that governing Eq. (15) of the
horizontal direction is also coupled with the vertical displacement.
On the other hand, it may be justied that the present model has the
advantage of a theoretical background because it is deduced in terms
of the variational principle. Furthermore, Eqs. (14) and (15) show
that the horizontal and vertical displacement functions, uB and wB ,
are coupled with each other, which is basically different from the
aforementioned foundation models.
Similarly, the corresponding boundary conditions at x 5 0 and 1
from Eq. (8) can also be obtained as

ls bfdc=dzdz

h5 L4
;
EI

(16)

2 ls bwdu=dxdx
H
2
0 ls b=n 0 dc=dz dz

2
2 ls b=n 0 w dx

2
2 ms bdw=dz dx

r2

ms budw=dzdx

ms bcdf=dzdz

0
H
2
0 ms bdf=dz dz
H
2
0 ms bc dz

2
2 ms bu dx

d2 wB
0
dx2

(17a)

d3 wB h11 L2 dwB h11 L2 dwS

0
2
dx3
EI dx
EI dx

(17b)

h2 duS
duB
2
0
dx h2 EA dx

(17c)

For region 2 , x , 0 and 1 , x ,

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d2 wS
du
2 k1 w S k2 S 0
dx2
dx

(18)

d2 uS
dw
2 d1 uS d2 S 0
dx2
dx
where
k1

h 2 h3 L
h 2 h9 L
h5 L2
h L2
; k2 9
; d1 10 ; d2 3
h11
h2
h11
h2
(20)

Here, the continuous conditions of the beam-foundation system are

obtained as
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wB 0 wS 0;
uB 0 uS 0;

wB 1 wS 1;
uB 1 uS 1;

c L11 F1

(19)

(28b)

Substituting Eq. (28) into Eq. (26), Eq. (26a) is automatically satised and Eq. (26b) yields
d 4 F1
d2 F1
2
2m
m2 F1 0
1
dz4
dz2

(29)

where

wS 6 0;
uS 6 0

d2 F1
2 z 1 F1
dz2

m1
(21)

z1 t1 t2 z2
;
2

m2 t1 z1

(30)

Then, the general solution of Eq. (29) can be written as

Governing Equations of the Attenuation Functions
F1

Collecting the coefcients of df and dc in Eq. (8), the governing

equations of the attenuation functions can be written as
d2 f
dc
2 z1 f 2 z2 0
dz2
dz

(22)

d2 c
df
2 t1 c 2 t2 0
dz2
dz

(23)

where

4
P

c1i f1i z

(31)

i1

where c1i i 5 1, 2, 3, 4 5 undetermined coefcients; and f1i z

i 5 1, 2, 3, 4 5 solution functions listed in Table 2. Substituting
Eq. (31) into Eq. (28) and considering boundary conditions Eq. (3),
coefcients c1i i 5 1, 2, 3, 4 can be determined. Thus, attenuation
functions fz and cz may be solved.
Solutions of the Displacement Functions

h
z1 1 ;
h12

h 2 h8
z2 4
;
h12

h
t1 7 ;
h6

h 2 h4
t2 8
h6

(24)

The boundary conditions of the attenuation functions are given in

Eq. (3), and the following four dimensionless parameters, g1 2g4 ,
can be introduced as
p
p
(25)
g1 H z1 ; g 2 Hz2 ; g3 H t1 ; g4 Ht2

For regions 2 , x , 0 and 1 , x , , by applying the differential

operator method, Eqs. (18) and (19) can be written as

Solutions of the Attenuation Functions

(32a)

L21 uS L22 wS 0

(32b)

where
L11 k2 d ;
dx

Solving Process

L11 uS L12 wS 0

2
L12 d 2 2 k1 ;
dx

2
L21 d 2 2 d1 ;
dx

L22 d2 d
dx
(33)

The auxiliary function, F2 , is chosen as

To obtain the solutions of the attenuation functions, the differential

operator method is applied to decompose the coupled equations. The
governing equations of attenuation functions f and c [Eqs. (22) and
(23)] can be rewritten as
L11 f L12 c 0

(26a)

L21 f L22 c 0

(26b)

uS 2L12 F2 2

d 2 F2
k1 F 2
dx2

wS L11 F2 k2

(34a)

dF2
dx

(34b)

Table 2. Constants and Solution Functions of Eqs. (29) and (35)

where Lij i, j 5 1, 2 5 differential operators and are dened as

2
L11 d 2 2 z1 ;
dz

L12 2z2 d ;
dz

Constant

L21 2t2 d ;
dz

L22 d 2 2 t1
dz

(27)

To uncouple Eq. (26), an auxiliary function F1 is introduced as

f 2L12 F1 z2

dF1
dz

Solution function

(28a)

b
f1 z
f2 z
f3 z
f4 z

m21 $ m2
q
p
m1 1 m21 2 m2
q
p
m1 2 m21 2 m2

m21 # m2
p

p
m2 =2 1 m1 =4

eaz
e2az
ebz
e2bz

eaz sin bz
eaz cos bz
e2az sin bz
e2az cos bz

p
m2 =2 2 m1 =4

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Substituting Eq. (34) into Eq. (32), Eq. (32a) is automatically satised and Eq. (32b) yields
4

d 6 F3
d4 F
d2 F
k1 43 k2 23 k3 F3 0
dx6
dx
dx

d F2
d F
2 2m3 22 m4 F2 0
dx4
dx

(35)

k1 2r1 s1 ;
m3

k1 d 1 k2 d 2
;
2

m4 k1 d1

(36)

Similar to the solution of auxiliary function F1 , the general solution

of F2 can be written as
F2

4
P

(43)

where

where

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Substituting Eq. (42) into Eq. (40b), yields

k2 s2 r1 s1 2 r2 s3 ;

c2i f2i z

uB x uhB x up x

(38a)

wB x whB x wp x

(38b)

6
P

ai f3i x

(45)

i1

(37)

where constants c2i i 5 1, 2, 3, 4 can be determined by the boundary

conditions; and f2i zi 5 1, 2, 3, 4 5 solution functions given in
Table 2. Parameters m1 and m2 , given in Table 2, should be replaced
by m3 and m4 during the determination of solution functions f2i z
for F2 . Then, applying the boundary conditions of Eq. (21), unknown
coefcients c2i can be determined and expressed by displacement
functions uB and wB at the ends of the beam (x 5 0, 1).
For region 0 # x # 1, the solutions of Eqs. (14) and (15) can be
written as

(44)

The characteristic equation [Eq. (43)] can be transformed into

the classical Cardano formula and calculated analytically as shown
in the Appendix. Correspondingly, the solution of auxiliary function
F3 can be expressed as
F3

i1

k3 2r1 s2

where ai i 5 1, 2, . . . , 6 5 constants determined by the boundary

conditions of the beam; and f3i xi 5 1, 2, . . . , 6 5 solution functions depending on the characteristic roots of Eq. (43). If the characteristic roots are one real number 6y1 and two complex conjugates
6y2 1 iy3 and 6y2 2 iy3 , f3i can be written as

where superscripts h and p 5 homogeneous and particular solutions

of the displacements, respectively. From Eqs. (14) and (15), the
particular solutions, up and wp , can be easily found as
up 2 P
s1
wp

(39a)

Q
r2

(39b)

To attain the homogeneous solutions, the homogeneous parts of

Eqs. (14) and (15) are written as
L11 uhB L12 whB 0

(40a)

L21 uhB L22 whB 0

(40b)

Fig. 2. Iterative procedure

where
4
2
L11 s3 d ; L12 d 4 2 s1 d 2 s2 ;
dx
dx
dx
d
L22 r2
dx

2
L21 d 2 2 r1 ;
dx

(41)

For Eq. (40), the following auxiliary function F3 can be chosen

dF3
dx

(42a)

d2 F3
2 r 1 F3
dx2

(42b)

uhB 2L22 F3 2r2

whB L21 F

Fig. 3. Vertical displacement of the beam on the elastic foundation

under concentrated load

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Fig. 4. Vertical displacement of the beam on the elastic foundation under uniform vertical load

f f3i gT fey1 x , e2y1 x , ey2 x sin y3 x, ey2 x cos y3 x, e2y2 x sin y3 x,

e2y2 x cos y3 xg

Table 3. Properties of the Cases under Uniform Load

Case

(46)
Dimensionless parameter

Meanwhile, if the characteristic equation has six different real roots

in the form of 6y1 , 6y2 , and 6y3 , f3i can be written as
f f3i gT fey1 x , e2y1 x , ey2 x , e2y2 x , ey3 x , e2y3 x g

Modulus ratio, E=Es

H=l

3,000
0.50

3,000
1.00

300
0.50

300
1.00

(47)

Based on the displacement functions, the bending moment and shear

force of the beam can be obtained.
Iterative Procedure
As discussed previously, displacement functions u and w and attenuation functions f and c are coupled to each other. To obtain the
response of the beam on elastic foundations considering the horizontal and vertical displacements, an iterative procedure recommended by Vallabhan (Vallabhan and Das 1988, 1991a, b) was
chosen, as shown in Fig. 2. The iteration begins with a set of approximate values of parameters g12g 4 . Using the iterative procedure, the step-by-step process of displacements and stresses of the
beam on the elastic foundation can be obtained.
First, the initial approximate values of g12g4 are assumed, e.g.,
g1,2,3,4 5 1:0. The solutions of attenuation functions fz and cz
can be obtained via Eq. (28). Then, substituting fz and cz (see
Table 1), parameters h2 , h3 , h5 , h9 , h10 , and h11 are obtained. Using
Eqs. (34) and (38), the horizontal and vertical displacements, ux
and wx, can be calculated. Then, the next series of attenuation
parameters g12g4 can be calculated by Eqs. (25). As shown in Fig. 2,
the iteration will continue until an enough accuracy of parameters
gk k 5 1, 2, 3, 4 is satised, which means the difference between
the ith and i 1 1th values of gki is smaller than as




(48)
gki1 2 gki  ,
where 5 required accuracy and can be usually assumed to be 0.001.

Fig. 5. Horizontal displacement of the beam on elastic foundations

under uniform vertical load

geometry and material parameters were chosen: L 5 30:48 m,

h 5 0:9144 m, b 5 0:3048 m, E 5 20:685 GPa, and n 5 0:2.
Validation

Numerical Results and Analysis

To compare the displacements and stresses of the beam-foundation
system using the present model with the available data, the following

The comparisons of the displacements of the beam on elastic

foundations under concentrated loads using the present model
were performed with those by the modied Vlasov model and the

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FEM. The vertically concentrated load was chosen as q 5 250 kN.

The physical and geometry parameters of the elastic foundations were
Es 5 15 MPa, ns 5 0:1, and H 5 30:48 m. In the FEM, the beamfoundation system was modeled by a rather ne nite-element (FE)
mesh, which included more than 8,000 solid elements. The comparison results of the beam displacements are shown in Fig. 3, which
indicate that the vertical displacements obtained by the present
method and FEM are both greater than those obtained by the
modied Vlasov model. The phenomenon is well understood as
a result of neglecting the horizontal displacement component in the
modied Vlasov model.
On the other hand, comparisons of the vertical displacements
of the beam between the results obtained by the present method and
the published data by Vallabhan and Das (Vallabhan and Das 1988)
were also carried out and are shown in Fig. 4. Four kinds of working
conditions, Cases 14, were considered during the comparisons (see
Table 3). The beam was assumed to be subjected only to uniform
vertical loads q. As shown in Fig. 4, the displacement curves
obtained by the two models are in good agreement.
Effect of the Modulus and Depth of the Foundation
If horizontal displacement ux, z is considered, the coupling effect
occurs on vertical displacement wx, z. As shown in Fig. 4, the effect
of depth H of the foundation on the vertical displacement of the beam
is signicant. For Cases 2 and 4, the vertical displacements of the
beam obtained by the present model were usually greater than those
obtained by Vallabhan and Das (1988). Thus, the increase of depth
H results in greater vertical displacements of the beam. Meanwhile,
vertical displacements wx decrease with an increase of Es .
Fig. 5 shows the horizontal displacements of the beam obtained
by the present method with the absence of the horizontal load. It can
be observed that the horizontal displacements of the beam exist
because of the coupling of the horizontal and vertical displacements.
However, in contrast to the vertical displacements, the amplitudes of
the horizontal displacements of the beam are very small. Moreover, an
antisymmetrical nature exists in the distribution curves of the horizontal displacement. Furthermore, another interesting phenomenon

is that Youngs modulus Es and depth H intensely affect the horizontal

displacements.
Fig. 6 shows attenuation functions fz and cz for Cases 14
in Table 3, where it can be seen that attenuation function cz
decreases gradually with the foundation depth. Moreover, the shapes
of cz obtained by the present model agree with those obtained
by Vallabhan and Das (1988). It is also interesting to observe that
attenuation function fz has a negative value in Cases 2 and 4. In
general, a negative value of fz indicates that the horizontal displacements of the foundation increase at a certain depth and then
reduce to zero at the rigid base. Furthermore, the slope of the attenuation function, fz, is signicantly greater than cz because
of the fact that the vertical displacements contribute mainly to the
total displacements.
Fig. 7 shows the vertical displacements of the beam with different
Poisson ratios of the foundation for Case 1. It is observed that the
effect of the Poisson ratio of the foundation on the vertical displacement of the beam is signicant. Obviously, when the foundation has a lower Poisson ratio value this will result in greater
vertical displacements of the beam. The reason may be that with an
increase of the Poisson ratio of foundations, the total deformation of
foundations transfers to the horizontal displacement and small
vertical displacement of the beam is reasonable. This may also be the
reason why the conventional foundation models result in overestimation of the vertical displacement. This interesting phenomenon also indicates the horizontal displacement cannot be neglected
when the Poisson ratio value of foundations is high.

Fig. 7. Effect of the Poisson ratio on the vertical displacement of the

beam under uniform vertical load
Table 4. Properties of the Cases under Concentrated Load
Case

Fig. 6. Attenuation function of the beam on elastic foundations under

uniform vertical load (q 5 29:19 kN=m)

Property

A1

A2

A3

A4

B1

B2

B3

B4

E=Es
H=l
ns

300
1.00
0.1

300
1.00
0.4

300
2.00
0.1

300
2.00
0.4

3,000
1.00
0.1

3,000
1.00
0.4

3,000
2.00
0.1

3,000
2.00
0.4

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Effect of the Nature of the Beam-Foundation

System

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According to the nature of the differential equation [Eq. (49); see

Appendix], the beam on elastic foundations can be classied into
two groups; i.e., D . 0 for a stiff beam and D , 0 for a exible beam.

To investigate the effect of the nature of the beam-foundation

system, the cases of a concentrated vertical load on a exible
beam on the foundations with a high Poisson ratio (for soft soil) are
discussed herein. The parameters of the beam-foundation system are
considered as eight kinds of cases, as shown in Table 4. Fig. 8 shows
the vertical and horizontal displacement curves of the beam on elastic

Fig. 8. Effect of the nature of the beam-foundation system on the vertical and horizontal displacements of the beam on the elastic foundation under
concentrated load

Fig. 9. Vertical displacements of the beam on elastic foundations with various p

Fig. 10. Horizontal displacements of the beam on elastic foundations with various p

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J. Eng. Mech. 2013.139:1757-1768.

foundations under concentrated load. It can be observed that the

beam becomes stiffer with an increase of E=Es . Moreover, the
vertical displacements of the exible beam are basically larger than
those of the stiff beam. However, the relationships between the
horizontal displacements and the beams stiffness are very complex.
On the other hand, it shows that high Poisson ratio ns of the foundation
leads to a high value of the horizontal displacement of the beam.

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Effect of the Horizontal Load

In practical engineering, usually a beam on an elastic foundation is
often subjected to not only vertical but also horizontal loads.
Therefore, the horizontal component of the total displacements of
the beam may be not neglected. To investigate the effect of the
horizontal load on the response of the beam-foundation system, four
cases were considered, as shown in Table 3. The horizontal loads on
the beam were assumed to be p 5 0, 0:1q, and 0:2q.
Fig. 9 shows that the vertical displacement curves under various
cases exhibit signicant differences. For Cases 1 and 3, with the

increase of the subjected horizontal loads, the vertical displacements

decrease at the left part of beam and increase at the right part;
whereas this tendency is not evident for Cases 2 and 4. The horizontal displacements of the beam on an elastic foundation with a
different value for horizontal load p are shown in Fig. 10. It may
be concluded that the horizontal displacements increase rapidly with
the increase of the horizontal load. Moreover, it is of interest to
observe that the horizontal displacement ux is sensitive to depth H
of the elastic foundation when p 5 0:1q. Fig. 11 shows the attenuation functions with various values of p, where the attenuation
functions of Case 1 are totally different from those of the other cases.
Moreover, the effects of the horizontal load and Es on the attenuation
functions are signicant.
Figs. 12 and 13 show the bending moment and shear force of the
beam with various horizontal loads p, respectively. Obviously, the
horizontal load may increase the bending moment of the beam,
whereas it contributes little to the shear force of the beam. Moreover,
the effect of Youngs modulus Es on the shapes of the bending
moment of the beam is signicant. For example, the shape of the
bending moment is saddleback when E=Es 5 300.
Fig. 14 shows the effect of the horizontal load on the synthetic
displacement vector of the beam-foundation system, where it can be
seen that the amplitude of the displacements decreases with the depth
of the foundation as the length of the arrows decreases. When p 5 0,
the shape of the displacement vector is symmetric, and almost only
the vertical displacement vector exists. When p 5 0:2q, the appearance of the horizontal displacement of the beam-foundation
system is evident. In this case, it is not practical to neglect the
horizontal displacement component.

Conclusions

Fig. 11. Attenuation functions of the beam on elastic foundations with

various p q 5 29:19 kN=m; subscripts 0, 1, and 2 denote the cases of
the horizontal load at p 5 0, 0:1q, and 0:2q)

An analytical model to deal with the coupling analysis of the

Bernoulli-Euler beam on elastic bidimensional foundations is proposed. The present approach is an extension of the modied Vlasov
model. With the separation of the variables, the horizontal and
vertical displacements of the beam-foundation system are expressed
as a displacement function at the ground surface and an attenuation
function along the depth of the foundation, respectively. The governing equations of the displacement and attenuation functions have
been obtained to couple them via the variational principle, and they
are uncoupled in terms of the differential operator method. An iterative procedure is chosen to fulll the numerical implementation. The
parametric study indicates that the response of the beam-foundation

Fig. 12. Bending moment of the beam on elastic foundations with various p

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Fig. 13. Shear force of the beam on elastic foundations with various p

system greatly depends on the coupling of the horizontal and vertical

displacements, especially for the cases of exible beams under vertically concentrated loads on foundations with higher Poisson ratios.
Moreover, the static behavior of beams under combined loads is
signicant relative to the horizontal component of the displacement
eld.

Appendix. Characteristic Solution of Eq. (43)

The solution of Eq. (43) may be assumed as F3 x 5 F3p eDx .
Substituting the solution into Eq. (43) with respect to Y 5 D2 , yields
Y 3 k1 Y 2 k2 Y k3 0

(49)

Eq. (49) can be transformed to the classical Cardano formula with

Z 5 Y 2 k1 =3 as
Z 3 k4 Z k5 0

(50)

where k4 5 k2 2 k1 =3; and k5 5 2k31 =27 2 k1 k2 =3 1 k3 . The general solution of Eq. (50) can be written as
s
s
r
r
 2  3
 2  3
3
3
k5
k5
k
k5
k4
k
Z1 2

2 4
2 52
2
2
3
2
2
3
s
s

r
r
 2  3
 2  3
3
3
k5
k5
k
k5
k4
k
2
v 2 52
Z2 v 2

2 4
2
2
3
2
2
3
s

r
r
 3
 3
3
3
k
k5 2
k
k5 2
k
k
Z3 v2 2 5
4 v 2 52
2 4
2
2
3
2
2
3

(51)
p
where v 5 21 1 i 3=2. The general solution of Eq. (50) depends
on the sign of term D 5 k5 =22 1 k4 =33 .

Fig. 14. Synthetic displacement vector of the beam-foundation system

Case 2: D < 0
Roots Zi and Yi i 5 1, 2, 3 are real numbers and unequal to each
other. Moreover, the general solution of Eq. (43) depends on the
sign of Yi . In general, there are eight kinds of possible solution cases.
Consequently, the general solution functions are listed in Eq. (47).
Case 3: D 5 0
Roots Zi and Yi i 5 1, 2, 3 are real numbers. In practice, this case is
extremely unlikely to exist.

Case 1: D > 0
Root Z1 is a real number, whereas Z2 and Z3 is a conjugate complex
pair. Accordingly, root Y1 of Eq. (49) is also a real number, whereas
Y2 and Y3 is a conjugate complex pair. Thus, the sign of Y leads to
two subcategories of the general solution. Consequently, the general
solution functions are listed in Eq. (46).

Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Science and
Technology Project of Hunan Province under Grant No. 2011FJ3124

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J. Eng. Mech. 2013.139:1757-1768.

and the Research Funds for the Young Teachers of Hunan

University.

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