A new approach to the foundation beams analysis via the cell method (Q1262167)

The cell method is used to analyze the static behaviour of structural foundations on a Winkler medium, and it is worth noting that all the particularities of the proposed discretization method are emphasized by this particular example. The structure is reduced to a set of n rigid bars, linked together by means of (n\(+1)\) elastic cells. The external loads are reduced to equivalent nodal forces, so that the structure can be treated as a pure holonomic Lagrangian scheme, and the corresponding set of Lagrangian coordinates can be arbitrarily assigned. A finite beam with two elastically flexible supports has to be examined, so that the Lagrangian coordinates could be the displacements of the \((n+1)\) elastic cells. However, we see that another, less natural, set of Lagrangian coordinates can give more satisfactory results. Finally, a numerical example is performed, in which a real foundation structure is examined in detail.