THE DYNAMIC-RESPONSE OF A VISCOELASTIC WINKLER FOUNDATION-SUPPORTED ELASTIC BEAM IMPACTED BY A LOW-VELOCITY PROJECTILE

The dynamic response of an elastic beam set on a linear viscoelastic W inkler foundation, impacted by a moving body at a low velocity, is ana lysed. A nonlinear Volterra integral equation on impact force F(t) is deduced, and an effective numerical method is used to solve the equati on and calculate the transverse deflection of the beam. The presence o f the foundation in our problem has the effect of damping the transver se vibration of the beam owing to the absorbed energy. As a practical example, the transverse deflection of a uniform straight beam with sim ply supported ends on a linear viscoelastic Winkler foundation impacte d centrally by a moving sphere, the bending stress of the beam, and th e impact force are computed numerically.