Does anyone have a good design refeence for determining k values for active and passive soil springs used in the beam-on-elastic foundation method of analyis?
I have had good results using this approach in the past when used properly. I'd suggest Bowles, he list some typical values and proposes an approach using basically the bearing capacity equation as a function of deflection. Reese has also published some typical values for various soil types & conditions.
I agree with jdonville, use free earth limit of equilibrium method. Has given good results to me in the past with reasonable deflections. Good and practical method