Abstract

In this paper, a first-order shear deformable beam element is formulated and employed to study the dynamic behavior of beams partially resting on a Pasternak elastic foundation subjected to an axial force and a moving harmonic load. The beam element is derived by using the solution of differential equilibrium equations of a beam segment to interpolate the transverse displacement and rotation. The dynamic response of the beams is computed with the aid of the Newmark method. A parametric study is carried out to highlight the effects of the moving load parameters, the axial force amplitude, and the foundation support on the dynamic characteristics of the beams. The obtained result reveals that the axial force and the moving velocity have an important role in the dynamic behavior of the beams, and the influence of the axial force on the dynamic behavior of the beam is dependent on the excitation frequency.