Dynamic response of an elastic-plastic free-free beam subjected to impact at any cross-section along its span

In a previous study [5] the material of the free-free beam was assumed to be rigid, perfectly plastic and a complete map of deformation modes of the beam subjected to step loading at any arbitrary location are obtained. It is obvious that the results in the paper were based on neglecting the influence of material's elasticity. The present study examines the transient behavior of an elastic, perfectly plastic free-free beam subjected to a step-loading at any arbitrary location. With the help of the minimum principle in dynamics of elastic-plastic continuum at finite deformation and associated the numerical technique, the deformation modes of the response for various magnitude and location of the load, as well as the partitioning of the energy dissipation are described and compared with the results based on rigid, perfectly plastic model.