Thispaperdealswiththecapabilitiesoflinearandnonlinearbeamtheoriesinpredictingthedynamicresponseofanelasticallysupportedthinbeamtraversedbyamovingmass.Tothisend,thediscreteequationsofmotionaredevelopedbasedonLagrange’sequationsviareproducingkernelparticlemethod(RKPM).Foraparticularcaseofasimplysupportedbeam,GalerkinmethodisalsoemployedtoverifytheresultsobtainedbyRKPM,andareasonablygoodagreementisachieved.Variationsofthemaximumdynamicdeflectionandbendingmomentassociatedwiththelinearandnonlinearbeamtheoriesareinvestigatedintermsofmovingmassweightandvelocityforvariousbeamboundaryconditions.Itisdemonstratedthatformajorityofthemovingmassvelocities,thedifferencesbetweentheresultsoflinearandnonlinearanalysesbecomeremarkableasthemovingmassweightincreases,particularlyforhighlevelsofmovingmassvelocity.Exceptforthecantileverbeam,thenonlinearbeamtheorypredictshigherpossibilityofmovingmassseparationfromthebasebeamcomparedtothelinearone.Furthermore,theaccuracylevelsofthelinearbeamtheoryaredeterminedforthinbeamsunderlargedeflectionsandsmallrotationsasafunctionofmovingmassweightandvelocityinvariousboundaryconditions.
