Static analysis of Timoshenko beam resting on elastic half-plane based on the coupling of locking-free finite elements and boundary integral

Making use of a mixed variational formulation including the Green function of the soil and assuming as independent fields both the structure displacements and the contact pressure, a finite element (FE) model is derived for the static analysis of a foundation beam resting on elastic half-plane. Timoshenko beam model is adopted to describe structural foundations with low slenderness and to impose displacement compatibility between beam and half-plane without requiring the continuity of the first order derivative of the surface displacements enforced by Euler–Bernoulli beam. Numerical results are obtained by using locking-free Hermite polynomials for the Timoshenko beam and constant reaction over the soil. Foundation beams loaded by many load configurations illustrate accuracy and convergence properties of the proposed formulation. Moreover, the different behaviour of the Euler–Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models is thoroughly discussed. Rectangular pipe loaded by a force in the upper beam exemplifies the straightforward coupling of the foundation FE with a structure described by usual FEs.