The Response of a Plate on an Elastic Foundation

Abstract

There has been much recent interest in the possibility of hardening an underground structure by means of an elastic plate placed on the ground above the structure. To obtain a simple expression for the interaction pressure between the ground and the plate, the present analysis treats the problem of a plate on top of an acoustic medium subjected to a uniformly moving pressure pulse. It is found that an approximate equation suggested by S. B. Baldorf is quite valid in the superseismic range of load speed. The specific problem of a step function loading traveling with uniform velocity, superseismic to the foundation, is treated. The extension of this problem to an actual elastic foundation is straightforward and is not treated.