Vibration of infinite Timoshenko beam on Pasternak foundation under vehicular load

Abstract

The vibration of beams on foundations under a vehicular load has attracted wide attention for decades. The problem has numerous applications in several fields such as highway structures. However, most of analytical or semi-analytical studies simplify the vehicular load as a concentrated point or distributed line load with the constant or harmonically varying amplitude, and neglect the presence of the vehicle and the road irregularity. This article carries out an analytical study of vibration on an infinite Pasternak-supported Timoshenko beam under vehicular load which is generated by the passage of a quarter car on a road with harmonic surface irregularity. The governing equations of motion are derived based on Hamilton’s principle and Timoshenko beam theory and then are solved in the frequency–wavenumber domain with a moving coordinate system. The analytical solutions are expressed in a general form of Cauchy’s residue theorem. The results are validated by the case of an Euler–Bernoulli beam on a Winkler foundation, which is a special case of the current system and has an explicit form of solution. Finally, a numerical example is employed to investigate the influence of properties of the beam (the radius of gyration and the shear rigidity) and the foundation (the shear viscosity, rocking, and normal stiffness) on the deflected shape, maximum displacement, critical frequency, and critical velocity of the system.