Elastic–plastic beam-on-foundation under quasi-static loading

An elastic–plastic discrete spring model is developed to represent the mechanical behavior of an elastic–plastic beam-on-foundation (BoF) system, and an analytical procedure of analyzing the BoF under general quasi-static loading is formulated. The paper describes a detailed numerical simulation and analysis for the case of a BoF subjected to a concentrated force at the mid-span, and various plastic collapse mechanisms of BoFs are identified. Two peculiar phenomena, i.e. the migration of plastic hinge in the beam and the successive propagation of plastic zone in the foundation, are demonstrated. It is found that any elastic, perfectly plastic BoF system can be characterized merely by three non-dimensional parameters, but the limit state of a rigid, perfectly plastic BoF is determined by a single non-dimensional parameter only. The non-dimensional relative rigidity of BoF and the ratio of the maximum elastic deformation energies dissipated in the beam and foundation both play important roles in governing the deformation scenario of an elastic–plastic BoF system.