Stability analysis of Timoshenko beams on variable Winkler soil (Q911350)

A new approach to the static and stability analysis of Timoshenko beams is proposed, which allows us to calculate the static response and the critical loads of a general one-dimensional Timoshenko beam on variable Winkler soil. The structure is reduced to a finite degree of freedom mechanism by means of the cells discretization method [the author, ibid. 16, No.5, 265-271 (1989; Zbl 0685.73037)], and the total potential energy of the system is calculated. Both the stiffness matrix and the geometric stiffness matrix of the axial loads are banded, and the resulting numerical problem has half bandwidth equal to 4. It follows that the linear set of equilibrium equations (in the statical case) or the generalized eigenvalue problem (for stability analysis) can be solved by means of highly efficient routines which fully employ symmetry and sparseness. The explicit formulae for the strain energy matrix are given by the author and \textit{C. Franciosi} [A new approach to the Timoshenko beam theory (to appear)], and are briefly summarized here, whereas the geometric stiffness matrix is calculated in detail. Finally, numerical comparisons and examples end the paper, in which the convergence rate of the method is emphasized, together with its capability to reproduce the Euler-Bernoulli results as a limiting case.