Sharper existence and uniqueness results for solutions to fourth-order boundary value problems and elastic beam analysis

Abstract

Abstract We examine the existence and uniqueness of solutions to two-point boundary value problems involving fourth-order, ordinary differential equations. Such problems have interesting applications to modelling the deflections of beams. We sharpen traditional results by showing that a larger class of problems admit a unique solution. We achieve this by drawing on fixed-point theory in an interesting and alternative way via an application of Rus’s contraction mapping theorem. The idea is to utilize two metrics on a metric space, where one pair is complete. Our theoretical results are applied to the area of elastic beam deflections when the beam is subjected to a loading force and the ends of the beam are either both clamped or one end is clamped and the other end is free. The existence and uniqueness of solutions to the models are guaranteed for certain classes of linear and nonlinear loading forces.