Geometrically nonlinear vibrations of beams supported by a nonlinear elastic foundation with variable discontinuity

• Geometrically nonlinear vibrations of a Timoshenko beam are investigated.
• Influence of a nonlinear foundation with discontinuity is studied.
• Natural frequencies and general mode shapes are obtained.
• Maximal deflections and deformed shapes of beams are determined.

Geometrically nonlinear vibrations of a Timoshenko beam resting on a nonlinear Winkler and Pasternak elastic foundation with variable discontinuity are investigated in this paper. A p-version finite element method is developed for geometric nonlinear vibrations of a shear deformable beam resting on a nonlinear foundation with discontinuity. The elastic foundation has cubic nonlinearity with the shearing layer. In the study the p-element which comes from the use of explored special displacement shape functions for damaged beams is used and applied to a model with nonlinear foundation. The novelty of the present study lies in the easy generalisation of the approach of natural frequencies, general mode shapes (transverse and rotations of cross sections), and maximal deflections in nonlinear steady state vibrations of the shear deformable beam for any size and location of discontinuity of the nonlinear elastic support. A new set of nonlinear partial differential equations is developed, and they are solved in the time domain using the Newmark method for obtaining the amplitudes and deformed shapes of a beam in the steady state forced vibration regime. The present work consists of the comparison of the results with various stiffnesses of nonlinear elastic supports of the Winkler and Pasternak type.