Modeling Beams on Elastic

Foundations Using Plate Elements in

Finite Element Method
Yun-gang Zhan
School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Jiangsu University of
Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China
e-mail: zygseastar@163.com

ABSTRACT
Beams on elastic foundations are often encountered in the regions of civil engineering,
harbour engineering and railway engineering. Analytical equations for this kind of problem
are not complex to be used to analyze regular beams and plates, but they are not suitable for
abnormal beams or plates. Finite element code incorporating beam elements on elastic
foundation is a better choice for this problem. General-purpose finite element package
ABAQUS provide an option of FOUNDATION to model elastic foundation, but it does not
support beam elements. In this paper, the application of using plate (shell) element to
represent behaviors of beams was verified firstly, and then two numerical examples of beams
on elastic foundations were examined by combining plate (shell) element with
FOUNDATION option. It is found that this method could be used to analyze this kind of
problem without losing accuracy in comparison with analytical results.

KEYWORDS:

beams on elastic foundations; plate (shell) element; finite element

analysis.

INTRODUCTION
The model of beams on elastic foundations is a simplified method to analyze forces of beam
foundations or mat foundations, in which the reaction forces of subsoil are proportional to the
deflection of the beam or mat at each point. That is to say, the foundations seem to lie on
identical, independent, closely spaced, and linearly elastic springs. The stiffness of these springs,
known as modulus of subsoil reaction k0 [kN/m2/m], links intensity of reaction forces on
foundation (pressure p) and deflection w, as p = k0 w . This postulate is presented first by Winkler
in 1867 and still used in geoengineering designs due to its simplicity.
Many simple calculation software or diagrams are formulated to analyze this kind of
problems, but most of them are based on thin beam or thin plate theory and can only deal with
beams or plates with simple outline, such as straight beam, regular flat plate. Some commercial
finite element packages, e.g., SAP, MARC, also incorporate element type of beam on elastic
foundation, then beams or plates with complex outline on elastic foundations can be analyzed
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easily and quickly by using them. General-purpose finite element package ABAQUS provides an
option of FOUNDATION, which acts like springs to ground and is a simple way of including
the stiffness effects of a support (such as the soil under a building) without modeling the details
of the support (Abaqus, 2010). This option can be used to simulate elastic foundation by
prescribing the foundation stiffness per area. However, this elastic foundation option does not
support beam elements, a number of spring elements are often laid under beam to accomplish this
type of simulation (Charlton, 2007). This paper presents an alternative method to analysis beams
on elastic foundation based on calculation framework of ABAQUS, in which the beam is
modeled by plate (shell) element. Its reliableness is verified by two numerical examples
comparing with the numerical solutions.

BEAM AND PLATE THEORY

It is well known that there are two kinds of beam theories: Euler-Bernoulli beam (thin beam)
theory and Timoshenko beam (thick beam) theory (Hetenyi, 1950; Hughes, and Cohen, 1978).
Figure 1 can illustrate the difference between them. For a beam under transverse loads, EulerBernoulli beam assumes that the cross-sectional plane being perpendicular to the neutral axis of
the beam remains plane and is still perpendicular to the neutral axis after deformation. Namely,
no transverse shearing deformation is taken into account, = dw / dx . For beams with relatively
high cross-sections compared with the beam length subjected to larger shear forces, it is
inapplicable to neglect the transverse shear deformation. Timoshenko beam (thick beam) theory
relaxes the perpendicular assumption but remains the plane assumption of cross-section plane to
consider shear deformation xz , i.e. dw / dx .
dw / dx

xz

dw
dx
Neutral axis

Figure 1: Bending of beam

Plate theory, including thin plate theory and thick plate theory, can be viewed as extensions
of one-dimensional beam theory to two-dimension space. For thin plate, an assumption referred
to as hypothesis of straight normal, which is like what adopted in thin beam theory, is assumed.
The normal to the middle plane of plate before bending remains straight and normal to the middle
surface during the deformation, and the length of such elements is not altered. This also means
that the vertical shear strains at cross section, xz and yz , are negligible and the normal strain may
also be omitted. Thick plate theory takes the assumption which is analogous to that associated
with the Timoshenko beam theory, i.e., xz 0 and yz 0 .

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From the above mentioned, one can use plate elements to substitute beam elements in finite
element analysis, if the loads and supports are equivalent to that of beams. For example, line
loads along cross section of the plate can substitute concentric forces acting on beams, and line
loads acting on longitudinal axis of beams can be substituted by surface tractions on the plate. In
the following sections, a cantilever beam subjected to concentric force was taken as an example
to examine the applicable substitution of beams with plates, and examples of beam on elastic
foundation were analyzed and compared with analytical solutions.

NUMERICAL EXAMPLE OF BEAM SUBSTITUTED BY

PLATE
To illustrate that the plate elements reduces to the same behavior as beam elements, a
cantilever beam subjected to concentric force, F = 10000kN, shown in Figure 2 was modeled.
The elastic modulus of material of beam is 20GPa and Poisson's ratio is 0.3. The numerical model
of the beam was established using beam element, plate (shell) element, and continuum element,
as presented in Figure 3.
1.6m

F
6.0m

0.8m

Figure 2: Cantilever beam

(a) Beam element

(b) Shell element

(c) Continuum element

Figure 3: Numerical models of cantilever beam

The end displacements calculated by analytical and numerical methods are presented in Table
1. It is obviously that the vertical displacements predicted by thick beam or thick plate theory are
larger than that calculated by thin beam or thin plate theory, for the effect of shear deformation on
displacement is considered. This example clearly indicates that plate (shell) element provided by
ABAQUS can model a one-dimensional beam without losing accuracy.

Table 1: Vertical end displacement of cantilever beam

Analytical result
Beam element
Plate (shell) element
Continuum
Euler-Bernoulli Timoshenko Euler-Bernoulli Timoshenko Thin Thick
Generalelement
beam
Beam
beam
Beam
shell
shell Purpose shell
0.132m
0.137m
0.132m
0.139m
0.129m 0.138m
0.138m
0.137m

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66

NUMER
RICAL EX
XAMPLE
ES OF B
BEAMS O
ON ELA
ASTIC
FOUN
NDATIONS
In
n this section, the option of
o FOUNDA
ATION and plate (shell) element was used to model
beams on elastic foundations.. Two examp
ples were annalyzed and compared w
with analytical
solutions.

Example 1
Consider
C
a beaam on elasticc foundation with
w free endds. The geom
metrical dimennsions loadinggs
are sh
hown in Figu
ure 4. The modulus
m
of ellasticity of m
material of thhe beam is 200GPa, and thhe
Poisso
on's ratio is 0.2. The modulus of subsoil is k0 = 11.8 104 kN/m2 /m . Figure 5 presents thhe
deform
med figuratio
on of the beaam modeled by plate (shhell) elementss, which is cconsistent witth
analyttical predictio
on (Huang an
nd He, 2005). The maximuum vertical displacement ooccurred at thhe
middlle of the beam
m is 6.44mm, with correspo
onding bendiing moment 1177.82kNm. There are onlly
slightt differences between
b
the numerical
n
ressults and the analytical onnes, which arre 6.46mm annd
179.17kNm, separrately.
F = 400kN

0.3m

q = 1.8 104 kPa

5.0m
m

5.0m

1.0m

Figure 4: Numerical
N
exxample 1

Figure 5: Deflection
D
off example 1
Magniffied by factoor: 100

Example 2
Example
E
2 is a beam laid on
o elastic foun
ndations withh 10m in lenggth, 1.1m in w
width and 0.5m
m
in dep
pth (Parvanov
va, 2011). Loads that are more
m
complexx were applieed on the beam
m, as shown iin
Figure 6. The elasstic modulus of material of
o the beam iis 30GPa, andd the Poissonn's ratio is 0.22.
4
2
/ .
m
of su
ubsoil is k0 = 5 10 kN/m /m
The modulus
100kN m

200kN//m

0.5m

200kN

1.0m

3.0m
m

1.0m

5.0m

Figure 6: Numerical
N
exxample 2

1.1m

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Numerical models based on plate (shell) elements were established to analyze this problem,
with thin plate element and thick plate element used separately. However, the results analyzed
with these two types of elements have no remarkable difference and the results of thick plate
element are presented in the following. The vertical displacements, EIv( x) obtained by numerical
method are compared with analytical results in Figure 7 and they match very well. Figure 8
shows the distribution of bending moment which is consistence with the analytical result. The
maximum bending moment predicted by numerical analysis is 163.4kNm, which is 3.3percent
lower that of analytical result, 169.1kNm. The bending moments at the 1-m cross section and 5m cross section away from the left end of beam are 44.399kNm and 12.245kNm, which are very
close to that of analytical solutions, 44.395kNm and 12.626kNm.
Length (m)
0

10

200
400
600

EIv(x)

800
1000
1200

Analytical solution
Numerical solution

1400
1600

Figure 7: Deflection along axis of the beam

Figure 8: Distribution of bending moments along axis of the beam

SUMMARY
In this paper, reduction of thick and thin plate (shell) element to Euler-Bernoulli beam
element and Timoshenko beam element was validated by an example of cantilever beam. Then
plate (shell) element in conjugated with FOUNDATION option was used to analyze two
numerical examples of beams on elastic foundations. Through comparing with numerical
solutions, it can be drawn that this method could be used to analyze these kinds of problems
without losing accuracy.

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REFERENCES
1. Abaqus, (2010). Users Manual. Version 6.10.
2. Charlton,Z. I. (2007) Innovative Design Concepts for Insulated Joints, Master thesis,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
3. Hetenyi, M. (1950) A General Solution for The Bending of Beams on an Elastic
Foundation of Arbitrary Continuity, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 21(1), 55-58.
4. Huang, Y. and He, F. S. (2005) Beams, Plates and Shells on Elastic Foundations (in
chinese), Science Press of China, Beijing.
5. Hughes,T.J.R. and Cohen, M. (1978) The Heterosis Finite Element for Plate Bending,
Computers and Structures, Vol. 9, 445-450.
6. Parvanova,S. (2011) Lecture notes: Structural Analysis II, University of Architecture,
Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia, Bulgaria.

2008 ejge