Modeling of elastic-plastic beam-on-foundation

A mass-spring model is developed to analyze an elastic-plastic BoF under quasi-static loading, mass impact and pulse loading. An analytical procedure for elastic-plastic BoFs is formulated. Either under the quasi-static loading or under dynamic loading, an elastic-plastic BoF undergoes various deformation scenarios, merely depending on a few non-dimensional parameters. Two peculiar phenomena, i.e. the "plastic hinge migration" in the beam and the successive propagation of plastic deformation in the foundation, can occur in an elastic-plastic BoF. It is also noted that the failure mode of BoFs under impact is quite different from that under quasi-static loading.