A coupled FE-BIE model for the static analysis of Timoshenko beams bonded to an orthotropic elastic half-plane

Interface displacements, surface tractions and stresses of a flexible beam bonded to an elastic orthotropic half-plane are analysed by means of a Finite Element-Boundary Integral Equation (FE-BIE) method. Numerical results are obtained by using locking-free shear deformable beams and piecewise constant interfacial reactions. Making use of the generalised Green's function for the half-plane, the mechanical behaviour of fully bonded or detached beams subjected to force, couple or thermal load is investigated. The special cases of a beam in bilateral frictionless contact with the half-plane and a beam having a vanishing bending rigidity (thin film) are considered also. In particular, the maximum bending moment of beams subjected to a vertical point force are compared with some closed-form solutions of the contact problem of a rigid indenter and with the solution of an infinite Euler–Bernoulli beam in bilateral frictionless contact with an isotropic substrate. The research that led to the present paper was partially supported by a grant of the group GNFM of INdAM.