4th Order Axial Beam on Elastic Foundation Buckling

Hi guys,

I am trying to determine a solution for the buckling region of a 200m rail track on an elastic foundation. I am wanting to use MatLab to provide and plot an exact solution for x values from 0 to 200.

The 4th order differential equation I am struggling with is:

EI''''+P''+ky=0

I have attempted to use dsolve however it gives 4 constants which then confuses me even more.

Many thanks and sorry if this seems a basic and easy thing to solve!

[Star Strider]

Post (or attach with the ‘paperclip’ icon) your code. The differential equation you posted doesn’t look correct.