A generalized model of elastic foundation based on long-range interactions: Integral and fractional model

The common models of elastic foundations are provided by supposing that they are composed by elastic columns with some interactions between them, such as contact forces that yield a differential equation involving gradients of the displacement field. In this paper, a new model of elastic foundation is proposed introducing into the constitutive equation of the foundation body forces depending on the relative vertical displacements and on a distance-decaying function ruling the amount of interactions. Different choices of the distance-decaying function correspond to different kind of interactions and foundation behavior. The use of an exponential distance-decaying function yields an integro-differential model while a fractional power-law decay of the distance-decaying function yields a fractional model of elastic foundation ruled by a fractional differential equation. It is shown that in the case of exponential-decaying function the integral equation represents a model in which all the gradients of the displacement function appear, while the fractional model is an intermediate model between integral and gradient approaches. A fully equivalent discrete point-spring model of long-range interactions that may be used for the numerical solution of both integral and fractional differential equation is also introduced. Some Green’s functions of the proposed model have been included in the paper and several numerical results have been also reported to highlight the effects of long-range forces and the governing parameters of the linear elastic foundation proposed.