BeamElement

ElementaryBeamTheory:

Elementstiffnessequation(localnode:i,j or1,2):
FormalApproach

Toderivethisapproach,theshapefunctionsareintroduced,

whichisacubicfunction.

whichimpliesthattherigidbody
motionisrepresentedbythe
ti i t d b th
assumeddeformedshapeofthe
Thedeflectioncanberepresentedas, beam.
Curvatureofthebeamis,

wherethestraindisplacementmatrixBisgivenby,

Strainenergystoredinthebeamelementis
Thestiffnessmatrixforthesimplebeamelementis

Combiningtheaxialstiffness
(barelement),thestiffness
matrixofageneral2Dbeam
element can be written as
elementcanbewrittenas
Example1

Thebeamshownaboveisclampedatthetwo
p
endsandacteduponbytheforcePandmoment
Minthemidspan.Determinethedeflectionand
rotationatthecenternodeandthereaction
forces and moments at the two ends
forcesandmomentsatthetwoends.
Elementstiffnessmatricesare,
Element1:

Element2:
 Element1: Element2:

GlobalFEequationis,
Loadsandconstraints(BCs)are,

Reduced FE equation
ReducedFEequation,

FromglobalFEequation,weobtainthereactionforcesandmoments,

Stressesinthebeamatthetwoendscanbecalculatedusingtheformula,
Distributedloads

Ifq(x)=0,thenexactsolutionforthedeflectionvisacubicfunctionofx,whichis
what described by the shape functions
whatdescribedbytheshapefunctions.
EquivalentNodalLoadsofDistributedTransverseLoad
 Example2

Acantileverbeamissubjectedtodistributed
lateralloadp.Determinethedeflectionand
rotationattherightend,thereactionforceand
moment at the left end
momentattheleftend.

Theworkequivalentnodalloadsare

ApplyingtheFEequation:
Loadandconstraints(BCs)are,

Reducedequationis,
q ,

Thesenodalvaluesarethesameastheexactsolution.
Notethatthedeflectionv(x)(for0<x<0)inthebeambytheFEMis,however,different
from that by the exact solution The exact solution by the simple beam theory is a 4th order
fromthatbytheexactsolution.Theexactsolutionbythesimplebeamtheoryisa4thorder
polynomialofx,whiletheFEsolutionofvisonlya3rdorderpolynomialofx.More
elementshavetobeused.

Thereactionforcescanbeobtainedasfollows,
Example3

Constructtheglobalmatrixfor
g
calculatingdeflections,rotationsandreactionforces.

Thebeamhasaroller(orhinge)supportatnode2andaspringsupportatnode3.Weuse
twobeamelementsandonespringelementtosolvethisproblem.

Thespringstiffnessmatrixisgivenby,

adding this stiffness matrix to the global FE equation

addingthisstiffnessmatrixtotheglobalFEequation
GlobalFEequationis,

inwhich