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Receding contacts appear in many composite technical and biological systems at the points where tensile stresses would appear otherwise. Here, we consider the contact of a beam placed on an elastic foundation (or thin elastic layer) in the presence of adhesion. In contrast to non-adhesive receding contact, the contact area in adhesive receding contact does depend on the applied load. Decreasing the load from the state of initial contact opening leads to an increase in the contact area. At a certain critical load, the beam jumps into contact at once along its entire length. For long beams, the point of opening of the contact does not depend on the intensity of forces of adhesion, and the opening occurs in an unstable way. This can lead to acoustic effects like joint cracking.

Environmental responses to deep excavations are combined results of numerous factors. The effects of some factors are relatively straightforward and can be considered carefully during the design. On the other hand, more features impact excavation-induced performances indirectly, making their influences difficult to be clearly understood. Unfortunately, the complexity and non-repeatability of practical projects make it impossible to thoroughly understand these issues through realistic deep excavation projects. Therefore, parametric studies based on repeatable laboratory and numerical tests are desired to investigate these issues further. This work examines the influence of several key features on excavation-induced displacements through a series of 3D numerical tests. The study includes the choice of soil constitutive models, the modeling method of the soil–wall interface, and the influences of various key soil parameters. The comparison shows that the MCC model can yield a displacement field similar to the HSS model, while its soil movement is greatly improved compared to the MC model. Both the soil–wall interface properties and soil parameters impact the excavation-induced displacement to a large extent. In addition, the influence mechanisms of these parameters are analyzed, and practical suggestions are given. The findings of this paper are expected to provide practical references to the design and construction of future deep excavation projects.

Deep excavations clearly impact adjacent existing properties and threaten their operational safety. Predicting the deformation of existing infrastructure induced by nearby underground construction is the main concern of urban underground development. This paper presents an analytical calculation method for predicting underground pipe gallery deformations induced by adjacent deep excavations. First, the authors assume the existing pipe gallery to be nonexistent in the soil and propose a solution to calculate the excavation-induced vertical movements of the soil at the position of the existing pipe gallery. Thereafter, the authors simplify the existing pipe gallery as an elastic beam on a Winkler foundation to calculate its deformation. Finally, the method is verified by the good agreement found between the calculated result and the field measurement of the construction of the Shanghai Hongqiao CBD project. The proposed analytical method of this work can provide accurate evaluation results for similar engineering projects.

Large deflection nonlinear bending of functionally graded (FG) porous cylindrical panels reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs) on a Pasternak-type elastic foundation is examined by developing a reliable and effective 2D meshfree-based nonlinear numerical method. The large displacement field is express by the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and the von Kármán nonlinearity, and approximated by 2D natural element method (NEM) in conjunction with the stabilized MITC3+ shell concept and the shell surface–rectangular grid geometry transformation. The nonlinear simultaneous equations are solved by a load incremental Newton–Raphson scheme. The developed nonlinear numerical method is justified from by comparing with the reference solutions, and the load–deflection and bending moment of FG-GPLRC porous cylindrical panels on elastic foundation are scrutinizingly examined. Four different symmetric GPL distribution patters (except for FG-Λ) and three different symmetric porosity distributions are considered and their combined effects on the nonlinear bending behavior are investigated, as well as the effects of foundation stiffness and GPL amount. Also, the results are compared with those of FG CNT-reinforced porous cylindrical panels.

To model the vibration and structure-borne sound excitation and propagation of a railway rail, it can be modeled as an infinite beam on an elastic foundation. Existing analytical or numerical models are either formulated in the frequency domain or consider only finite beams in the time domain. Therefore, a time-domain approach for bending wave propagation on an effectively infinite beam on an elastic foundation is proposed. The approach makes use of an implicit finite-difference method that allows for varying properties of the beam and the foundation along the length of the beam. Strategies for an efficient discretization are discussed. The method is validated against existing analytical models for a single layer and two layers, as well as continuous and discrete support. The results show very good agreement, and it can be concluded that the proposed method can be seen as a versatile method for simulating the behavior of a beam on different kinds of elastic foundations.

Free vibrations of porous functionally graded material (FGM) plates with complex shapes are analyzed by using the R-functions method. The thickness of the plate is variable in the direction of one of the axes. Two types of porosity distributions through the thickness are considered: uniform (even) and non-uniform (uneven). The elastic foundation is defined by two parameters (Winkler and Pasternak). To obtain the mathematical model of the problem, the first-order shear deformation theory of the plate (FSDT) is used. The effective material properties in the thickness direction are modeled by means of a power law. Variational Ritz’s method joined with the R-functions theory is used for obtaining a semi-analytical solution of the problem. The approach is applied to a number of case studies and validated by means of comparative analyses carried out on rectangular plates with a traditional finite element approach. The proof of the efficiency of the approach and its capability to handle actual engineering problems is fulfilled for FGM plates having complex shapes and various boundary conditions. The effect of different parameters, such as porosity distribution, volume fraction index, elastic foundation, FGM types, and boundary conditions, on the vibrations is studied.

The settlement of track in a railroad underpass project was studied by theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, based on the model of winkle beam on elastic foundation. Taking the settlement of roadbed as a nonlinear boundary condition, the control differential equation of the track large deformation settlement was established and solved by the Fourier series method; the numerical solution was obtained by establishing a numerical model based on an actual project and compared and analyzed with the series solution and cosine function solution. The correlation coefficients of the track settlement curves obtained from the series solution and the numerical solution were higher than those of the cosine function solution while the numerical solution with the maximum track settlement difference was only 0.8% of the maximum settlement of the track numerical solution. The accuracy of the series solution method is higher in this paper, and the track settlement curve obtained from theoretical calculation reflects and predicts the track settlement well when the track settlement cannot be measured directly.

In this study, the dispersion of an infinite shear beam with a lumped mass connected at periodic distances and resting on an elastic foundation was examined. The effect of periodicity in the finite region of the lumped masses on wave propagation was investigated through a one-dimensional model. The dispersion relationship for Bragg scattering, which consists of one-dimensional periodic lumped masses, was derived using the transfer matrix method. Subsequently, to evaluate the effect of parameters such as the magnitude of the lumped mass and foundation stiffness on the dynamic response of the shear beam, several simulations were performed. The band frequency characteristics of the shear beam are demonstrated with respect to the variations in stiffness and mass. Using the wave-based approach, the effect of periodic masses on wave propagation in a finite region of an infinite beam was revealed. Periodic masses have been shown to have a positive effect on the displacement amplitude; in other words, a lumped mass barrier is effective in providing wave attenuation.

This manuscript develops for the first time a mathematical formulation of the dynamical behavior of bi-directional functionally graded porous plates (BDFGPP) resting on a Winkler–Pasternak foundation using unified higher-order plate theories (UHOPT). The kinematic displacement fields are exploited to fulfill the null shear strain/stress at the bottom and top surfaces of the plate without needing a shear factor correction. The bi-directional gradation of materials is proposed in the axial (x-axis) and transverse (z-axis) directions according to the power-law distribution function. The cosine function is employed to define the distribution of porosity through the transverse z-direction. Equations of motion in terms of displacements and associated boundary conditions are derived in detail using Hamilton’s principle. The two-dimensional differential integral quadrature method (2D-DIQM) is employed to transform partial differential equations of motion into a system of algebraic equations. Parametric analysis is performed to illustrate the effect of kinematic shear relations, gradation indices, porosity type, elastic foundations, geometrical dimensions, and boundary conditions (BCs) on natural frequencies and mode shapes of BDFGPP. The effect of the porosity coefficient on the natural frequency is dependent on the porosity type. The natural frequency is dependent on the coupling of gradation indices, boundary conditions, and shear distribution functions. The proposed model can be used in designing BDFGPP used in nuclear, marine, aerospace, and civil structures based on their topology and natural frequency constraints.

Under thermal environment and axial forces, the dynamic instability of functionally graded graphene platelet (GPLs)-reinforced porous beams on an elastic foundation is investigated. Three modes of porosity distributions and GPL patterns are considered. The governing equations are given by the Hamilton principle. On the basis of the differential quadrature method (DQM), the governing equations are changed into Mathieu–Hill equations, and the main unstable regions of the porous composite beams are studied by the Bolotin method. Thermal buckling and thermo-mechanical vibration problems are also studied. The effects of porosity coefficients and GPL weight fraction, dispersion pattern, initial thermal loading, slenderness ratio, geometry and size, boundary conditions, and foundation stiffness are discussed. The conclusions show that an elastic foundation has an obvious enhancement effect on thermal buckling, free vibration, and dynamic instability, which improves the stiffness of the beam.

This paper provides a general formularization of the nonlocal Euler–Bernoulli nanobeam model for a bending examination of the symmetric and asymmetric cross-sectional area of a nanobeam resting over two linear elastic foundations under the effects of different forces, such as axial and shear forces, by considering various boundary conditions’ effects. The governing formulations are determined numerically by the Generalized Differential Quadrature Method (GDQM). A deep search is used to analyze parameters—such as the nonlocal (scaling effect) parameter, nonuniformity of area, the presence of two linear elastic foundations (Winkler–Pasternak elastic foundations), axial force, and the distributed load on the nanobeam’s deflection—with three different types of supports. The significant deductions can be abbreviated as follows: It was found that the nondimensional deflection of the nanobeam was fine while decreasing the scaling effect parameter of the nanobeams. Moreover, when the nanobeam is not resting on any elastic foundations, the nondimensional deflection increases when increasing the scaling effect parameter. Conversely, when the nanobeam is resting on an elastic foundation, the nondimensional deflection of the nanobeam decreases as the scaling effect parameter is increased. In addition, when the cross-sectional area of the nanobeam varies parabolically, the nondimensional deflection of the nonuniform nanobeam decreases in comparison to when the cross-sectional area varies linearly.

This study investigates the backflow of a Newtonian fluid in a two-dimensional flat-walled fracture with Navier slip boundary conditions. The fracture has a uniform aperture and two rigid pre-strained plates as walls; their elastic deformations are described by the Winkler model. Under the lubrication assumption, the governing nonlinear ordinary differential equation and the time-dependent velocity profile are derived; in turn, this yields the time and space evolution of the pressure distribution inside the fracture, numerically. In addition, the condition when the external pressure becomes zero, is discussed, and a parametric study is performed to highlight the influence of the slip length.

Despite the popularity of a completely free beam resting on a tensionless foundation in the construction industry, the existing bending analysis solutions are limited to certain types of loads (mostly point and uniformly distributed loads); these are also quite complex for practicing engineers to handle. To overcome the associated complexity, a simple iterative procedure is developed in this study, which uses the Ritz method for the bending analysis of a free–free beam on a tensionless foundation subjected to a patched load. The Ritz method formulation is first presented with polynomials being used to approximate the beam deflection with unknown constants to be determined through minimization of the potential energy. To account for the tensionless action, the subgrade reaction is set to zero when the deflection is negative. The non-zero subgrade reaction zone is defined by αlL/2

This paper aims to study the hygrothermal buckling of smart graphene/piezoelectric circular nanoplates lying on an elastic medium and subjected to an external electric field. The circular nanoplates are made of piezoelectric polymer reinforced with graphene platelets that are uniformly distributed through the thickness of the nanoplate. The material properties of the nanocomposite plate are determined based on the modified Halpin-Tsai model. To capture the nanoscale effects, the nonlocal strain gradient theory is applied. Moreover, the principle of virtual work is employed to establish the nonlinear stability equations in the framework of classical theory. The differential quadrature method is utilized to solve the governing equations. Among the important aims of the paper is to study the influences of various parameters such as graphene weight fraction, elastic foundation parameters, external applied electric field, humid conditions, and boundary conditions on the thermal buckling of the smart nanocomposite circular nanoplates. It is found that the increase in graphene components and elastic foundation stiffness enhances the strength of the plates; therefore, the buckling temperature will increase.

This work deals with the wave propagation analysis in functionally graded carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-reinforced composite beams lying on an elastic medium. Despite the large amount of experimental and theoretical studies in the literature on the mechanical behavior of composite structures strengthened with CNTs, limited attention has been paid to the effect of an axial graduation of the reinforcing phase on the mechanical response of CNTs-reinforced composite beams. In this paper, CNT fibers are graded across the beam length, according to a power-law function, which expresses a general variation from a linear to parabolic pattern. An Euler-Bernoulli beam theory is considered herein to model the CNTs-reinforced composite structure resting on a Winkler–Pasternak foundation, whose governing equations are derived from the Hamiltonian principle. The theoretical solution of the problem checks for the sensitivity of the mechanical response to different parameters, i.e., the wave number, power index, Winkler and Pasternak coefficients, that could serve for further computational/experimental studies on the same problem, even from a design standpoint.

In this paper, a functionally graded piezoelectric plate on an elastic foundation composed of two different piezoelectric materials bonded together in the form of plate is studied, and its static bending and fundamental frequencies are analyzed. First, based on Kirchhoff plate theory and the Hamilton principle, the governing equations and corresponding boundary conditions of the model are derived, and then the equations are discretized and solved by the differential quadrature method (DQM). Finally, the effects of physical parameters such as length-to-height ratio, length-to-width ratio, material graded index, foundation stiffness coefficient, temperature change value and external voltage value on static bending deflection, and fundamental frequency value of the functionally graded piezoelectric plate with four sides simply supported are discussed. The calculated results are in good agreement with those in the literature. The data results show that the increase in the elastic foundation stiffness coefficient will increase the equivalent stiffness of the plate. In the process of work, due to the equivalent pressure value generated by the influence of the external voltage, it will lead to unstable phenomena.

Rock masses with a distinct structure may present a transversely isotropic character; thus, the stress state in a transversely isotropic elastic half-plane surface is an important way to assess the behavior of the interaction between the distributed loading and the surroundings. Most previous theoretical analyses have considered a loading direction that is either vertical or horizontal, and the stress distribution that results from the effect of different loading directions remains unclear. In this paper, based on the transversely isotropic elastic half-plane surface theory, a stress solution that is applicable to distributed loading in any direction is proposed to further examine the loading effect. The consistency between the analytical solution and numerical simulations showed the effectiveness of the proposal that was introduced. Then, it was utilized to analyze the stress distribution rule by changing the Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus of the model. The effects of the formation dip angle on the stress state are also examined. The stress distribution, depending on the physical property parameters and relative angle, is predicted using an analytical solution, and the mechanisms associated with the transversely isotropic elastic half-plane surface subjected to the loading in any direction are clarified. Additionally, extensive analyses regarding this case study, with respect to the mechanical behavior associated with changes in the stress boundary, is available. Hence, the proposed analytical solution can more realistically account for the loading problem in many engineering practices.

This paper deals with the design of a five-storey hospital building, in which we focus on the deterministic and probabilistic analysis of its slab foundation. The hospital building bearing structure was modeled as a reinforced concrete skeleton. The Boussinesque model was selected for the subsoil under the plate foundation, which was a model of the elastic half-space, where properties of individual layers of the subsoil were entered according to the geological survey. The geological topology consisted of clay gravel and also included a layer of clay sand. In the stochastic solution, the variance of values was considered for individual mechanical properties of different types of soil. We analyzed the influence of the variance of input values on the resulting deflections, strain, and stress state of the plate foundation. Two variants of the solution were considered on the given numerical example. Probability calculations confirmed the probability of failure, which was allowed for the second limit state.

In this work, we introduce an efficient scheme for the numerical solution of some Boundary and Initial Value Problems (BVPs-IVPs). By using an operational matrix, which was obtained from the first kind of Chebyshev polynomials, we construct the algebraic equivalent representation of the problem. We will show that this representation of BVPs and IVPs can be represented by a sparse matrix with sufficient precision. Sparse matrices that store data containing a large number of zero-valued elements have several advantages, such as saving a significant amount of memory and speeding up the processing of that data. In addition, we provide the convergence analysis and the error estimation of the suggested scheme. Finally, some numerical results are utilized to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposed technique, and also the presented algorithm is applied to solve an engineering problem which is used in a beam on elastic foundation.

Vibrations of single-layered graphene sheets subjected to a longitudinal magnetic field are considered. The Winkler-type and Pasternak-type foundation models are employed to reproduce the surrounding elastic medium. The governing equation is based on the modified couple stress theory and Kirchhoff–Love hypotheses. The effect of the magnetic field is taken into account due to the Lorentz force deriving from Maxwell’s equations. The developed approach is based on applying the Ritz method. The proposed method is tested by a comparison with results from the existing literature. The numerical calculations are performed for different boundary conditions, including the mixed ones. The influence of the material length scale parameter, the elastic foundation parameters, the magnetic parameter and the boundary conditions on vibration frequencies is studied. It is observed that an increase of the magnetic parameter, as well as the elastic foundation parameters, brings results closer to the classical plate theory results. Furthermore, the current study can be applied to the design of microplates and nanoplates and their optimal usage.

This paper investigates the dynamic buckling of bi-directional (BD) functionally graded (FG) porous cylindrical shells for various boundary conditions, where the FG material is modeled by means of power law functions with even and uneven porosity distributions of ceramic and metal phases. The third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT) is adopted to derive the governing equations of the problem via the Hamilton’s principle. The generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is applied together with the Bolotin scheme as numerical strategy to solve the problem, and to draw the dynamic instability region (DIR) of the structure. A large parametric study examines the effect of different boundary conditions at the extremities of the cylindrical shell, as well as the sensitivity of the dynamic stability to different thickness-to-radius ratios, length-to-radius ratios, transverse and longitudinal power indexes, porosity volume fractions, and elastic foundation constants. Based on results, the dynamic stability of BD-FG cylindrical shells can be controlled efficiently by selecting appropriate power indexes along the desired directions. Furthermore, the DIR is highly sensitive to the porosity distribution and to the extent of transverse and longitudinal power indexes. The numerical results could be of great interest for many practical applications, as civil, mechanical or aerospace engineering, as well as for energy devices or biomedical systems.

Activities of traditional longwall mining will result in ground subsidence and therefore cause issues such as damages to buildings and farmlands, water pollution and loss, and potential ecological and environmental problems in the mining region. With advantages of the longwall backfill mining method, as well as the room and pillar mining method, a continuous excavation and continuous backfill (CECB) method in longwall mining is recommended to effectively control the ground subsidence. In this method, mining roadways (MRs) are initially planned in a panel, and then they are excavated and backfilled in several stages until the whole panel is mined out and backfilled. According to the geologic conditions of an underground coal mine, and the elastic foundation beam theory, a mechanical model was built to study the subsidence of the roof while using this new mining method. In addition, methods to calculate roof subsidence in various stages in CECB were also provided. The mechanical parameters of backfilling materials, which were used in the theoretical calculation and the numerical analysis for mutual check, were defined through analyzing the stability conditions of the coal pillars and the filling bodies. The control effect for the ground subsidence of using the newly proposed mining method was analyzed based on both simulation results and site monitoring results, including the ground subsidence, horizontal displacement, tilt, curvature and horizontal strain. This research could provide suggestions to effectively control ground subsidence for a mine site with similar geologic conditions.

In this paper, the exact analytical solutions are developed for the thermodynamic behavior of an Euler-Bernoulli beam resting on an elastic foundation and exposed to a time decaying laser pulse that scans over the beam with a uniform velocity. The governing equations, namely the heat conduction equation and the vibration equation are solved using the Green’s function approach. The temporal and special distributions of temperature, deflection, strain, and the energy absorbed by the elastic foundation are calculated. The effects of the laser motion speed, the modulus of elastic foundation reaction, and the laser pulse duration time are studied in detail.

Under thermal environment and axial forces, the dynamic instability of functionally graded graphene platelet (GPLs)-reinforced porous beams on an elastic foundation is investigated. Three modes of porosity distributions and GPL patterns are considered. The governing equations are given by the Hamilton principle. On the basis of the differential quadrature method (DQM), the governing equations are changed into Mathieu-Hill equations, and the main unstable regions of the porous composite beams are studied by the Bolotin method. Thermal buckling and thermo-mechanical vibration problems are also studied. The effects of porosity coefficients and GPL weight fraction, dispersion pattern, initial thermal loading, slenderness ratio, geometry and size, boundary conditions, and foundation stiffness are discussed. The conclusions show that an elastic foundation has an obvious enhancement effect on thermal buckling, free vibration, and dynamic instability, which improves the stiffness of the beam.