Part II: Application of Newly Derived and Calibrated Continuum Subgrade Models in the Analysis of Beams on Elastic Foundations

Variants of a new continuum subgrade model presented by the first author (Part I) are employed to analyze beams on elastic foundations. When the higher order model variants are used, the beam's differential equation becomes of order six. Closed-form solutions of finite and infinite beams are obtained for basic loadings. Deflections are compared with results of finite-element based software and a classical model. Though the comparison shows that the new model is sensitive to the subgrade thickness, a carefully conducted calibration work eliminated this drawback. Numerical examples illustrate that the calibrated variants give results in excellent agreement with the FE results. Also, the influence of the subgrade shear becomes less significant once the calibration is accomplished. This outcome suggests that the classical Winkler model can still be used together with the improved relation for the coefficient of subgrade reaction provided at the end of the paper.