2/19/13

Beam elements Bernoulli or Timoshenko

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Beam elements Bernoulli or Timoshenko

Beam elements Bernoulli or Timoshenko
ANSYS Tutorial [2] Let us now consider a different element type. To model the behaviour of a structure that is thin in two dimensions relative to the third dimension, which is subjected to a bending load, a beam element is good choice. Just the line of gravity of the beam-like-structure has to be discretized. In contrast to classical solid elements beam elements have not only displacement degrees of freedom, but also rotations. A simple supported beam structure under a uniform pressure load distribution is shown in Figure 2.

[1]

At this stage it is worth to distinguish two different beam theories: In ANSYS beam elements are available according to the theory of Bernoulli or according to the theory of Timoshenko, respectively. The user should know that shear stresses are not calculated for Bernoulli beam elements but only for Timoshenko beam elements. Bending stresses (linear over the thickness) are available in both beam theories. Since the effect of shear is neglected using Bernoulli beam elements the structure will show a stiffer behaviour as if a Timoshenko beam model was used. This is illustrated in Figure 3.

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Beam elements Bernoulli or Timoshenko

It is worth to know about these both theories when using beam elements to choose the correct element type if shear stresses are for example of interest. Considering the deformation it should be mentioned that differences cannot be neglected any more if the ratio of the thickness to the length of the beam - d/l exceeds the limit of 1/10, i.e. if the beam cannot be considered any more as thin. In [4] the analytical solution for the maximum displacement in y-direction according to Bernoulli is given:

We observe that the numerical solution with BEAM3/BEAM4 is almost exact. However, since shear stresses are always present in reality, the user has a more accurate result, taking BEAM188/BEAM189. Recommendation: ANSYS: In general, the users should take BEAM188/189 if possible. ANSYS Workbench: By default, BEAM188 is used. Author: Thomas Nelson, Erke Wang, CADFEM GmbH, Munich, Germany Related Content:
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2/19/13

Beam elements Bernoulli or Timoshenko

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