Solution of beam on elastic foundation by DQEM

A new numerical approach for solving the problem of a beam resting on an elastic foundation is proposed. The approach uses the differential quadrature (DQ) to discretize the governing differential equations defined on all elements, the transition conditions defined on the interelement boundaries of two adjacent elements, and the boundary conditions of the beam. By assembling all the discrete relation equations, a global linear algebraic system can be obtained. Numerical results of the solutions of beams resting on elastic foundations obtained by the DQEM are presented.