The bending of a Timoshenko beam resting on a Kerr-type three-parameter elastic foundation is introduced, its governing differential equations are formulated and analytically solved, and the solutions are discussed and applied to particular problems. Parametric analyses of elastically supported beams of infinite and finite length are carried out and comparisons are made between one, two or three-parameter foundation models and more accurate 2D finite element models. In order to estimate the necessary soil parameters, an analytical procedure based on the modified Vlasov model is proposed. The presented solutions and applications show the superiority of the Kerr-type foundation model compared to one or two-parameter models.

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