Impulsive loading of ideal fibre-reinforced rigid-plastic beams—III Cantilever beam

The theory outlined in Part I is applied to the problem of a cantilever beam struck transversely at any point by a mass which subsequently adheres to the beam. In the subsequent motion, slope and velocity discontinuities propagate outwards from the point of impact. Solutions for the velocity and deflection of the various segments of the beam are obtained for the case of linear strain-hardening, and simpler approximate solutions are derived for the case of low impact velocity and/or slight strain-hardening. The discontinuity propagating towards the free end of the beam always comes to rest before it reaches this end, but for sufficiently high values of impact mass and velocity, and a strain-hardening parameter, one or more reflections of the discontinuity may occur at the fixed end of the beam and at the point of impact.