Steady state response of an infinite beam on a viscoelastic foundation with moving distributed mass and load

Compared with the moving concentrated load model, it is more realistic and proper to use the moving distributed mass and load model to simulate the dynamics of a train moving along a railway track. In the problem of a moving concentrated load, there is only one critical velocity, which divides the load moving velocity into two categories: subcritical and supercritical. The locus of a concentrated load demarcates the space into two parts: the waves in these two domains are called the front and rear waves, respectively. In comparison, in the problem of moving distributed mass and load, there are two critical velocities, which results in three categories of the distributed mass moving velocity. Due to the presence of the distributed mass and load, the space is divided into three domains, in which three different waves exist. Much richer and different variation patterns of wave shapes arise in the problem of the moving distributed mass and load. The mechanisms responsible for these variation patterns are systematically studied. A semi-analytical solution to the steady-state is also obtained, which recovers that of the classical problem of a moving concentrated load when the length of the distributed mass and load approaches zero.