Transient Beam Response due to Point-Load Impact and Estimation of Onset of Yielding in Bending

Abstract

When a dynamic point load is applied laterally to a beam, the deflection gradually spreads over time until the entire beam length is affected. The determination of the early stages of response presents substantial mathematical difficulties. The normal-mode superposition is made awkward by the fact that the number of modal components necessary to get a reasonably accurate answer increases as the time interval of interest decreases. This paper presents a different solution based on a dominating flexural wave, which allows one to formulate compact and transparent expressions.