Question

Explain Concept of beam on elastic foundation.

Answer 1

The beam is on elastic foundation when under the applied external loads, the reaction forces of  the foundation are proportional at every point to the deflection of the beam at this point.

Consider a straight beam supported along its entire length by an elastic medium and subjected to  vertical forces acting in the plane of symmetry of the cross section

Because of the external loadings the beam will deflect producing continuously distributed  reaction forces in the supporting medium. The intensity of these reaction forces at any point is  proportional to the deflection of the beam y(x) at this point via the constant k: