Int J Adv Struct Eng (2016) 8:351–361

DOI 10.1007/s40091-016-0135-8

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

A contact element for dynamic analysis of beams to a moving

oscillator on tensionless elastic foundation
Trong Phuoc Nguyen1 • Dinh Trung Pham2

Received: 28 January 2016 / Accepted: 8 August 2016 / Published online: 5 September 2016
Ó The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Abstract This paper presents the contact elements for Keywords Contact element  Dynamic analysis of beam 
dynamic analysis of Euler–Bernoulli beams to a moving Tensionless elastic foundation  Moving oscillator
oscillator on tensionless elastic foundation considering
discontinuous contact. The elastic foundation is modeled
by linear elastic springs accounting for discontinuous Introduction
contact between the beam and foundation. Three types of
contact element including a full-bonded element, full-un- The contents of the overwhelming majority of publications
bonded element and half-bonded element in finite element on the dynamic response of beams resting on various
method expressing the relation displacement between the elastic foundation types are based on the assumption that
beam and foundation are suggested in this paper. The there is a continuous contact between beam and subgrade.
contact force of the beam and foundation during vibration The foundation model is considered as a continuous dis-
as external force of the beam is established by the elastic tribution of linear elastic springs, whose constraint reaction
foundation’s reaction distributed per length of the element. per unit length is at each point of the foundation directly
The governing equations of motion are derived by means proportional to the deflection of the foundation itself,
of finite element method and solved by Newmark’s time regardless of its sign. Because of the above assumption, it
integration procedure in the time domain. The effects of the can be seen that the foundation model is very simple, hence
discontinuous contact phenomenon due to tensionless it has been applied so much in behavior analysis models of
foundation on dynamic responses of the beam are dis- structure resting on the foundation and a few studies using
cussed. The comparisons between present solution and this foundation model were carried out by Lee (1998),
ordinary solution with continuous contact show that the Huang and Thambiratnam (2001), Seong-Min and Frank
dynamic responses of the beam are quite different and (2003), Nguyen and Le (2011), Nguyen et al. (2012) and
increasing than those of the ordinary solution. Mohanty et al. (2012). However, for real applications, the
soil can only react when in pressure from the beam, which
may be caused by either the action of a transverse load
& Trong Phuoc Nguyen
along the span or by the beam itself due to force vibration,
[email protected] i.e., and thus it has attracted many researchers.
Dinh Trung Pham
In the many last few decades, many relevant studies
[email protected] related to the structure on foundation model considering
discontinuous contact have been published, each tackling
1
Department of Mechanics of Materials and Structures, the problem via different approaches. In an earlier work,
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City Open
Conway and Farnham (1970) have investigated the prob-
University, No. 97 Vo Van Tan St., No. 3 Dist,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam lem of a beam of finite length which rests on a continuous
2 elastic foundation under a concentrated load. In this study,
Department of Mechanics of Materials and Structures,
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Quang Trung University, two conditions are considered—in one case the beam is
Dao Tan St., Nhon Phu Ward, Qui Nhon, Vietnam bonded to the elastic foundation while in the second case

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the beam is not bonded to the elastic foundation. The Pasternak is investigated by Andrea and Luca (2011). The
results obtained for the unbonded case are independent of unilateral nature of the beam–soil contact gives the prob-
the length of the beam and the contact length is indepen- lem a nonlinear feature and the contact region behavior was
dent of the load on the beam and is a function only of the investigated under the action of a concentrated force
relative stiffness of beam and foundation. Jin and Byung located at midspan and a concentrated couple at either of
(1986) have studied a numerical procedure for the analysis the beam ends in three contact scenarios. Bhattiprolu et al.
of the elasto-plastic contact problem under large strain. A (2011) have studied the static and dynamic responses of a
variational formulation equivalent to these equations beam on a nonlinear tensionless viscoelastic foundation
transformed into a recursive quadratic programming subjected to concentrated static and harmonic loads. The
problem by finite element method is used to overcome the modal amplitude equations also involve co-ordinates of
difficulties in solving simultaneously the nonlinear gov- unknown ‘‘lift-off points’’ determined as a part of the
erning equations and geometric contact condition. Con- solution for structural response through the constraints
tinuous and discontinuous contact problems for strips on an imposed on the solution derived by the Galerkin method
elastic semi-infinite plane are investigated via Fourier using linear modal bases. Celep et al. (2011) have pre-
transformations and the use of Navier equations by Osman sented the static and dynamic responses of a completely
and Fenzli (1991). In this study, the formulation is derived free elastic beam resting on a two-parameter tensionless
initially from general loading conditions and the continu- Pasternak foundation subjected to a concentrated force at
ous contact problem between the strip and the half plane is the middle and a uniformly distributed load. Governing
examined and integration procedure is performed numeri- equations of the problem are obtained and solved by paying
cally until initial separation between the strip and the attention to the boundary conditions of the problem in the
elastic plane. Silva et al. (2001) have presented a numerical case of complete contact and lift-off condition of the beam
methodology for analysis of plates resting on tensionless in a two-parameter foundation and the nonlinear governing
elastic foundations using finite element method to dis- equation of the problem is evaluated numerically by
cretize the plate and foundation. The elastic foundation is adopting an iterative procedure. Ma et al. (2009) analyzes
described either by the Winkler model or as an elastic half- the static response of an infinite beam supported on a
space and the contact surface is assumed unbonded and tensionless two-parameter Pasternak foundation with the
frictionless. To overcome the difficulties in solving the transfer displacement function method and the lift-off
plate-foundation equilibrium equations, a variational for- points employed to determine the initially unknown
mulation equivalent to these equations is presented from lengths. Sapountzakis and Kampitsis (2010) used the
which three alternative linear complementary problems are boundary element method for the nonlinear dynamic
derived and solved by Lemke’s complementary pivoting behavior of beam supported on tensionless Winkler foun-
algorithm to obtain no-contact regions where the plate lifts dation. Zhang and Murphy (2012) have studied a general
up away from the foundation and the subgrade reaction. An formulation developed for the contact behavior of a finite
analytical model is developed for the static response of a circular plate with a tensionless elastic foundation. The gap
beam resting on a tensionless elastic foundation subjected distance between the plate and elastic foundation incor-
to a lateral point load by Zhang and Murphy (2004). An porated as an important parameter is reduced to zero when
analytical and numerical solution with no assumption about the plate radius becomes large enough and the contact area
either the contact area or the kinematics associated with the varies with the plate radius, boundary conditions and gap
transverse deflection of the beam is obtained by the gov- distance. Contact problem for an elastic layer on an elastic
erning equations. Because these assumptions are dropped, half plane loaded by means of three rigid flat punches is
the contact area is a sensitive function of the beam length studied by Ozsahin and Taskiner (2013). In this study, the
and might depend on the magnitude of the load, and frictionless contact problem for an elastic layer resting on
asymmetric loads have a dramatic influence on the contact an elastic half plane is solved by the theory of elasticity and
area for the finite system. The dual mixed finite element integral transformation technique, and different parameters
approximation of unilateral contact problems has been are researched for various dimensionless quantities for both
studied by Wang and Yang (2009), a priori error estimates continuous and discontinuous contact cases. Konstantinos
have been established for both conforming and noncon- and Dimitrios (2013) have presented the buckling of axi-
forming finite element approximations based on the dual ally compressed beams resting on elastic foundation con-
mixed variational formulation with three unknowns, and a sidering discontinuous (unbonded) contact between beam
Uzawa type iterative algorithm was developed to solve the and subgrade. A two-region contact/non-contact configu-
resulting linear system. ration is revealed using Galerkin’s method as the only
Recently, the tensionless contact problem of an Euler– possible post-buckling deformation for both pinned–pinned
Bernoulli beam of finite length resting on a tensionless and fixed–fixed boundary conditions.

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From these literatures, the problem of the dynamic

analysis of beams subjected to a moving load on tension-
less elastic foundation considering discontinuous contact
by finite element method has limitation, and thus, this
paper presents the contact element of beams to consider
unbonded contact phenomenon between beam and foun-
dation in this problem. Based on two contact conditions of
the tensionless elastic foundation (bonded and unbonded to
the tensionless elastic foundation) and number of lift-off
points, three element types are suggested in this study Fig. 2 The two-node beam element resting on elastic foundation
including the full-bonded, full-unbonded and half-bonded
element. This contact element uses to analyze dynamic including vertical displacements and rotations in global axes
responses of the beams under moving loads on tensionless shown in Fig. 2 is considered. By means of finite element
elastic foundation considering discontinuous. method, the dynamic displacement function ui ðn; tÞ of the ith
The organization of the paper is as follows. The next element expressed in terms of the nodal displacement vector
section describes the definition problem of the dynamic  T
ue;i ðtÞ ¼ ½ ue;2i1 ue;2i ue;2iþ1 ue;2iþ2  in each time
analysis of beams to a moving oscillator on tensionless
elastic foundation and the governing equations of motion step is given by
 
are also derived in this section. The contact element of ui ðn; tÞ ¼ ½N uie ðtÞ ð1Þ
beams consisting of the first beam element type ‘‘full-
bonded’’ contact, the second beam element type ‘‘full-un- where ½N ¼ ½Ni  ði ¼ 1; . . .; 4Þ are the cubic spatial shape
functions, (third-order polynomial in the beam element) in
bonded’’ contact and the third beam element type ‘‘half-
bonded’’ contact to the elastic foundation is presented in local coordinate n in finite element method.
‘‘Contact element’’ to determine the contact force of the The moving oscillator model is regarded as a two-
node system one of which is associated with each of two
beam and foundation. Numerical validations are given in
detail in ‘‘Numerical results’’ including the verified concentrated masses shown in Fig. 2. The stiffness and
example compared with the results in the literature and damping coefficients of the oscillator are denoted by kv
dynamic responses of the beam numerically investigated. and cv , respectively, the mass of the bottom part by mw
Finally, some concluding remarks are also presented. and the mass of the upper part by Mv . In addition, zv and
zw denote the vertical displacements of two nodes
measured from the static equilibrium position. By
Definition problem assuming the no-jump condition for the oscillator, the
contact force can be related to displacement and its
derivatives. Equations of motion of the oscillator can be
A beam having the length L, width b, thickness h, Young’s
modulus E and mass density q with coordinate system Oxz written as follows:
     
is shown in Fig. 1. The beam resting on tensionless elastic Mv 0 z€v cv cv z_v
þ
foundation considering discontinuous contact is subjected 0 mw z€w cv cv z_w
to a moving oscillator which moves in the axial direction of      ð2Þ
kv kv zv 0
the beam with constant velocity v. þ ¼
kv kv zw fc  ðMv þ mw Þg
Based on Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, the two-node
beam element with two degrees of freedom per node where fc is contact force between the beam and oscillator
given by
fc ¼ Mv z€v þ mw z€w þ ðMv þ mw Þg: ð3Þ
The dimensionless parameters of the oscillator used to
analyze the dynamic response of the considered system are
as follows (Mohebpour et al. 2011). The mass parameter j,
defined as ratio of the total weight of the oscillator to the
total weight of the beam Mb is
j ¼ ðMv þ mw Þ=Mb ð4Þ
and the frequency parameter c, defined as ratio of the
Fig. 1 The beam subjected to a moving oscillator on elastic
foundation considering discontinuous contact natural vibration frequency of the oscillator xv to the first

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fundamental natural frequency of beam without elastic Contact element

foundation xb is to be
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi This paper presents the contact element of beams to con-
c ¼ xv =xb ¼ kv =Mv =xb : ð5Þ
sider unbounded contact phenomenon between beam and
n o
From Eq. (2), if the deflection zw is expressed in terms foundation to determine the Ffe;i ðtÞ . Due to tensionless
 
of the nodal displacement vector ue;i ðtÞ by means of
elastic foundation, the contact force vector of the beam and
finite element method, the governing differential equation
foundation depends on the displacement of the beam at the
for the displacement of mass Mv can be expressed as
moment. Substituting the value of matrix shape function
Mv z€v þ cv z_v  cv ½NðnÞfu_ e g þ kv zv  kv ½NðnÞfue g ¼ 0: ½NðnÞ into Eq. (1) and rearrangement of this equation, the
ð6Þ dynamic displacement function of the beam element is
given as follows:
Considering m time steps and choosing a time interval
Dt, at any time t, the position of the moving oscillator ui ðn; tÞ ¼ ð2ue;2i1 þ ue;2i  2ue;2iþ1 þ ue;2iþ2 Þn3
xm ¼ vt and the left end of the beam element in global þ ð3ue;2iþ1  2ue;2i  3ue;2i1  ue;2iþ2 Þn2 þ ue;2i n þ ue;2i1 :
coordinate (ith node) is xi ¼ Int½xm =ll. One can find the ð10Þ
element number ith, nodes ith and i þ 1th, which the
It can be seen that the dynamic displacement of the
moving oscillator is applied to at any time t, as

beam during vibration always varies in each time step.
ith ¼ Int xlm þ 1. Therefore, nðtÞ can be rewritten in terms
Thus, the contact surface between beam and subgrade can
of the global instead of the local nðtÞ ¼ xm  ithl and the
occurs gap or opposite, which corresponds with two con-
value of matrix shape function ½NðnÞ is time dependent as
ditions of the contact. The gap appearing between the beam
the oscillator moves from one position to another. The
and subgrade is not bonded while in the opposite case the
system equation for the dynamic response of the beam
beam is bonded to the elastic foundation. Two-condition
resting on tensionless elastic foundation subjected to a
contact between the beam and elastic foundation can be
moving oscillator and without material damping of the
expressed as follows: ui ðn; tÞ [ 0—unbonded case and
beam is given by
b
 
    ui ðn; tÞ\0—bonded case, and especially ui ðn; tÞ ¼ 0 is lift-
Me u€e;i ðtÞ þ Kbe ue;i ðtÞ ¼ ½NðnÞT fc þ Ffe ðtÞ : off point. It is clear from Eq. (10), the dynamic displace-
ð7Þ ment function ui ðn; tÞ is expressed by power-three poly-
nomial in the local coordinate, and thus it is only able to
Substituting Eq. (3) in Eq. (7) and rearrangement of this have maximum three lift-off points on the length of the
equation gives beam element solved from equation ui ðn; tÞ ¼ 0. Based on
 b
  two-condition contact and number of lift-off points, three
Me þ mw ½NðnÞT ½NðnÞ u€e;i þ Mv ½NðnÞT z€v

  n o ð8Þ beam element types which describe problem contact
þ Kbe ue;i ¼ ½NðnÞT ðM v þ mw Þg þ Ffe;i ðtÞ : between the beam and tensionless elastic foundation are
suggested in this paper as follows.
Combining Eqs. (6) and (8) gives the governing equa-
tion of motion as Full-bonded contact element
(
)( )
Mbe þ mw ½NðnÞT ½NðnÞ Mv ½NðnÞT u€e;i
The full-bonded contact element is shown in Fig. 3. It
0 Mv z€v
 ( ) " #( ) expresses the entire surface of beam element and elastic
0 0 u_ e;i Kbe 0 ue;i foundation which are in contact at all times. Then, the
þ þ
cv ½NðnÞ cv z_v kv ½NðnÞ kv zv dynamic displacement condition of the beam can be
( n o) expressed as
½NðnÞT ðM v þ mw Þg þ Ffe;i ðtÞ
¼ 8n 2 ½ 0 l  : ui ðn; tÞ  0: ð11Þ
0
ð9Þ
b
b

where Ke and Me are stiffness and mass matrix of the

two-node beam element in the finite element method,
n o
respectively. From Eqs. (7) to (9), Ffe;i ðtÞ is the contact
force vector of the beam and foundation and concerned in
Fig. 3 Full-bonded contact beam element
the next section.

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The influence of elastic foundation on behavior of the The elastic foundation’s reaction can be expressed as
beam is considered similar to the influence of external Rðn; tÞ ¼ kw H ðnÞui ðn; tÞ ð17Þ
force in each time step which is a reaction of elastic
foundation in compression region under action of a trans- where H ðnÞ is an auxiliary contact function defined as
verse load along the span or by the beam itself due to force H ðnÞ ¼ 0, ui ðn; tÞ  0 and H ðnÞ ¼ 1, ui ðn; tÞ\0.
vibration, i.e., the reaction of elastic foundation which is The number of contact regions between the beam ele-
considered as a continuous distribution of linear elastic ment and the elastic foundation depends on the number of
springs kw whose constraint reaction per unit length is at lift-off points and the elastic foundation’s reaction is dis-
each point of the foundation directly proportional to the continuous during the length of the beam element shown in
deflection of the foundation itself can be expressed as Fig. 5. To determine the external force vector of the beam
element, this paper establishes a similar fixed–fixed beam
Rðn; tÞ ¼ kw ui ðn; tÞ: ð12Þ
model shown in Fig. 6 which is subjected to the reaction of
By means of finite element method, the external force the elastic foundation in contact region, that is replaced by
vector of the beam element that caused the elastic foun- a uniform distribute load qi ðnÞ as follows:
dation reaction is given by R
RðnÞdn
Zl qi ð nÞ ¼ l i ð18Þ
n o li
Ffe;i ðtÞ ¼ ½NðnÞT Rðn; tÞdn: ð13Þ
In this model, the reactions at both ends of similar fixed–
0
fixed beam are solved from the static balance equation
based on finite element method and the external force
Full-unbonded contact element vector of the beam element causing the elastic foundation
reaction can be determined as
The second case, when the entire surface of the beam n oT
element and the elastic foundation have a gap occurring Ffe;i ðtÞ ¼ ½ V1 M1 V2 M2  ð19Þ
between the others, the beam element is full-unbonded
where ½ V1 M1 V2 M2  are the reaction at both ends
contact with elastic foundation shown in Fig. 4. Then, the
which corresponds to degrees of freedom of the beam
dynamic displacement condition of the beam element may
element in finite element method.
be expressed as
From Eqs. (13), (15) and (19), it can be seen that the
8n 2 ½ 0 l  : ui ðn; tÞ  0: ð14Þ contact force of the beam and foundation during vibration
n o
In this case, the entire surface of the beam element and of the beam Ffe;i ðtÞ can be determined by the three types
the elastic foundation do not contact together and thus the of contact beam element. From that, the governing equa-
elastic foundation is not affected by the behavior of the tion of motion of entire system Eq. (9) is rewritten as
beam. Hence, the external force vector caused the elastic
½Mfz€g þ ½Cfz_g þ ½Kfzg ¼ fP(t)g ð20Þ
foundation reacting equals to zero
n o
Ffe;i ðtÞ ¼ f0g: ð15Þ

Half-bonded contact element

In contrast to the above two cases, the surface of the beam

element and the elastic foundation have both bonded and
unbonded contact regions between the others. The dynamic
displacement condition of the beam element is
9n 2 ½ 0 l  : ui ðn; tÞ [ 0 and ui ðn; tÞ\0: ð16Þ

Fig. 5 Half-bonded contact beam elements: a three, b two, c one lift-

Fig. 4 Full-unbonded contact beam element off point

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Fig. 6 The similar fixed–fixed

beam model: a three, b two,
c one lift-off point

where ½M, ½C and ½K are the mass, damping and stiffness Relative t/τ
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
matrices of the whole system, respectively; fz€g, fz_g, fzg
0.001
are the acceleration, velocity and displacement vectors for
Neves et al. (2012)

Displacement (m)
the whole system, respectively, while fP(t)g is the external
0 Present
force vector. It can be seen that symbols ½M, ½C and ½K in
Eq. (20) are called instantaneous matrices because they are -0.001
time-dependent matrices due to the position of the moving
oscillator. From Eq. (20), the dynamic response of the -0.002
beam on tensionless elastic foundation considering dis-
continuous contact subjected to a moving oscillator can be -0.003
studied. The direct step-by-step integration method based
Fig. 7 Dynamic displacement of the center of the beam
on Newmark’s algorithm is used in the solution of Eq. (20)
by the computer program written by MATLAB language.
Relative t/τ
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0.001
Numerical results
Oscillator disp (m)

Neves et al. (2012)

0 Present
Verified examples
-0.001
Before studying numerical results, to establish the accuracy
of the above formulation and the computer program using -0.002
MATLAB developed, results obtained from the present
-0.003
study are compared with the results in the literature.
As a first example, the dynamic characters of a simply Fig. 8 Vertical displacement of oscillator
supported beam without foundation under a moving
oscillator are investigated and compared with the results of L ¼ 10 m, h ¼ 0:1 m, E ¼ 206  109 N/m2 , q¼
3
Neves et al. (2012). Figure 7 presents dynamic displace- 7860 kg/m and kw ¼ 5  105 N/m2 . The dynamic dis-
ment at the center of the beam and vertical displacement of placements determined from the above formulation of this
oscillator is plotted in Fig. 8. The comparisons show that paper are compared with solution of Nguyen and Le (2011)
the present dynamic displacement at the center of the beam considering continuous contact. Figure 9 shows time his-
and vertical displacement of oscillator are in good agree- tories for dynamic displacement at the midpoint and for
ment with the results of Neves et al. (2012). different positions x ¼ 2:5 m and x ¼ 7:5 m. The results of
The next example investigates the dynamic character- the dynamic displacement show that all of the almost
istics of a beam on the elastic foundation considering dis- positions of the beam are contacted with an elastic foun-
continuous (unbonded) contact subjected to a moving load dation during time histories. Hence, the present dynamic
P ¼ 105 N with a constant velocity v ¼ 50 m/s, the fol- displacements are similar to the results of Nguyen and Le
lowing material and geometric properties are adopted: (2011) shown in Fig. 9.

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Relative t/τ Relative t/τ

(a) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (b) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Displacement x10-3(m) 0 0

Displacement x10-3(m)
Nguyen and Le (2011) Nguyen and Le (2011)
-0.04 Present -0.03 Present

-0.08 -0.06
x = 7.5 m
-0.12 -0.09
x = 2.5 m
-0.16 -0.12

Fig. 9 Dynamic displacement of the beam on elastic foundation subjected to a constant speed point load: a at the center of the beam, b different
positions: x ¼ 2:5 m and x ¼ 7:5 m

Relative t/τ Relative t/τ

(a) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (b) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0.15 0.15
Displacement x10-3 (m)

Displacement 10-3 (m)

0 0

-0.15 -0.15

-0.3 -0.3
CC DC CC DC
-0.45 -0.45

Relative t/τ Relative t/τ

(c) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (d) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0.15 0.15
Displacement x10-3 (m)
Displacement x10-3 (m)

0 0

-0.15 -0.15

-0.3 -0.3
CC DC CC DC
-0.45 -0.45

Fig. 10 Time histories for dynamic deflections of the center point of the beam with dimensionless parameters K0 (cv ¼ 0, mw ¼ 0, v ¼ 25 m/s,
j ¼ 0:5, c ¼ 0:5): a K0 ¼ 10, b K0 ¼ 20, c K0 ¼ 30, d K0 ¼ 40

Through above examples the numerical results from the stiffness K0 ¼ kw L4 =EI, and using 20 beam elements in
program based on the suggested formulation show good finite method. The influences of parameters on dynamic
agreement with numerical results in the literature. There- response of the beam determined from above formulation
fore, the program used to analyze the dynamic response of considering discontinuous contact (DC) are compared
the beam subjected to a moving oscillator on tensionless with ordinary solution considering continuous contact
elastic foundation considering discontinuous contact is (CC).
reliable. As the first investigation, the influence of elastic foun-
dation stiffness on dynamic response of the beam under a
Dynamic responses of beam moving oscillator is investigated. The dynamic displace-
ments of the center point of the beam for various values of
In this section, the dynamic responses of the beam are elastic foundation stiffness are presented in Fig. 10. It has a
investigated. The simple support beam parameters are significant effect on the beam which decreases with an
given by: L ¼ 2 m, E ¼ 206  109 N/m2 , q ¼ 7860 kg/m3 increase of values elastic foundation stiffness. But, the
and dimensionless parameter of elastic foundation comparisons between two of the elastic foundation models

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Relative t/τ Relative t/τ

(a) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (b) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Displacement x10-3 (m) 0.06 0.15

Displacement x10-3 (m)

CC DC CC DC
0 0

-0.06 -0.15

-0.12 -0.3

-0.18 -0.45

Relative t/τ Relative t/τ

(c) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (d) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0 0
Displacement x10-3 (m)

Displacement x10-3 (m)

-0.2 -0.4

-0.4 -0.8

-0.6 -1.2
CC DC CC DC
-0.8 -1.6

Fig. 11 Time histories for dynamic deflections of the center point of the beam with mass parameters j (cv ¼ 0, mw ¼ 0, v ¼ 25 m/s, K0 ¼ 25,
c ¼ 0:5): a j ¼ 0:25, b j ¼ 0:5, c j ¼ 1, d j ¼ 2

show that it has a significant difference between the others compared with those obtained using the ordinary elastic
and the elastic foundation considering the discontinuous foundation model showing the unexpectedly increasing of
contact model shows increased dynamic responses of the dynamic responses of the beam.
beam than ordinary elastic foundation model which is
shown clearly by the increase of elastic foundation stiffness
values. Conclusions
From Figs. 11 and 12, the comparisons show that it has
a significant difference between the others and the elastic The contact element for dynamic analysis of beams to a
foundation considering the discontinuous contact model moving oscillator on tensionless elastic foundation con-
shows increased dynamic response of the beam than ordi- sidering discontinuous contact has been suggested in this
nary elastic foundation model. Figure 13 plots the influ- paper. The definition problem consists of the beam, moving
ence of elastic foundation stiffness on dynamic oscillator and tensionless elastic foundation has been
magnification factors (DMF) which is defined as the ratio employed by the finite element method. Due to status of the
of maximum dynamic deflection to maximum static contact between each beam element and tensionless elastic
deflection (the maximum static deflection is solved from foundation during vibration, three types of this element
the beam on elastic foundation considering continuous expressing the relative displacement of the beam and
contact model) at the center point of the beam; the com- foundation are defined to determine the contact force as
parisons show that the DMFs have a very significant dif- external load on beam based on finite element method in
ference between two the elastic foundation models for this formulation. The program for analyzing the problem
various elastic foundation stiffness parameters. considering discontinuous contact using MATLAB lan-
The last investigation, the influence of mass and fre- guage has been built.
quency of the oscillator on the DMFs of the beam are The effects of the discontinuous contact phenomenon
shown in Figs. 14 and 15, respectively, which show that it due to tensionless elastic foundation on dynamic responses
has a very significant difference between two the elastic of the beam are discussed. The numerical results also
foundation models for various mass parameters and fre- verify that the velocity and dynamic properties of the
quency parameters. For range of low velocity, the DMFs of moving oscillator, the stiffness of the foundation effect
the beam considering discontinuous contact model are plays a very important role on the dynamic responses of the

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Relative t/τ Relative t/τ

(a) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (b) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Displacement x10-3 (m) 0.1 0.12

Displacement x10-3 (m)

CC DC CC DC
0 0

-0.1 -0.12

-0.2 -0.24

-0.3 -0.36

Relative t/τ Relative t/τ

(c) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (d) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0.1 0.1
Displacement x10-3 (m)

Displacement x10-3 (m)

CC DC CC DC
0 0

-0.1 -0.1

-0.2 -0.2

-0.3 -0.3

Fig. 12 Time histories for dynamic deflections of the center point of the beam with frequency parameters c (cv ¼ 0, mw ¼ 0, v ¼ 25 m/s,
K0 ¼ 35, j ¼ 0:5): a c ¼ 0:25, b c ¼ 0:5, c c ¼ 1, d c ¼ 2

(a) 1.6 (b) 1.6

1.45 1.45
DMF

DMF

1.3 1.3

1.15 1.15
CC DC CC DC
1 1
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)

(c) 1.8 (d) 6

CC DC
1.6 4.75
DMF
DMF

1.4 3.5

1.2 2.25
CC DC
1 1
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Velocity (m/s) Velocity (m/s)

Fig. 13 Dynamic magnification factors for various dimensionless parameters K0 versus velocity (cv ¼ 0, mw ¼ 0, j ¼ 0:5, c ¼ 0:5): a K0 ¼ 10,
b K0 ¼ 20, c K0 ¼ 30, d K0 ¼ 40

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(a) (b)
1.8 1.6

1.6 1.45
DMF

DMF
1.4 1.3

1.2 1.15
CC DC CC DC
1 1
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
velocity (m/s) velocity (m/s)

(c) 1.6 (d) 1.6

CC DC CC DC
1.45 1.4

DMF
DMF

1.3 1.2

1.15 1

1 0.8
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
velocity (m/s) velocity (m/s)

Fig. 14 Dynamic magnification factors for various mass parameters j versus velocity (cv ¼ 0, mw ¼ 0, c ¼ 0:5, K0 ¼ 25): a j ¼ 0:25,
b j ¼ 0:5, c j ¼ 1, d j ¼ 2

(a) 7 (b) 3.4

CC DC CC DC
5.5 2.8
DMF

DMF

4 2.2

2.5 1.6

1 1
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
velocity (m/s) velocity (m/s)

(c) 1.5 (d) 4

CC DC CC DC
1.375 3.25
DMF
DMF

1.25 2.5

1.125 1.75

1 1
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
velocity (m/s) velocity (m/s)

Fig. 15 Dynamic magnification factors for various frequency parameters c versus velocity (cv ¼ 0, mw ¼ 0, j ¼ 0:5, K0 ¼ 35): a c ¼ 0:25,
b c ¼ 0:5, c c ¼ 1, d c ¼ 2

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