Mechanical Characterization of Beams on Tensionless Foundation Materials
The deformation and internal forces of beams on tensionless foundation materials were studied. The reaction force between the beam the foundation was fitted as a cubic polynomial about the deflection based on the experimental data, and the corresponding control equations of beams were derived by the finite difference method. Results show there are significant differences between tensionless and tensional foundation materials for the deformation and internal forces of beams. The difference is varying with the length of beams. Both the relative errors of the maximum of deflection and slope can be over 20%, and the relative errors of the maximum of shearing force and bending moment are smaller comparatively, so the tensionless effect of foundation materials can not be neglected for the stiffness verification and the strength verification of beams.