Session: 01-01-01: Advanced Structural Mechanics and Computational Methods for Aerospace Applications

Paper Number: 190415

190415 - A High-Order Co-Rotational Beam Element for Geometrically Nonlinear Analysis of Arbitrarily Curved Beams 

Beams and beam-type structures are highly effective at distributing loads, enabling the design of lightweight systems. They can exhibit strongly nonlinear mechanical responses prior to failure, making them attractive for advanced applications such as phase-transforming structures and multifunctional designs. Accurate modeling of the geometrically nonlinear behavior of arbitrarily shaped curved beams remains a challenging task. The co-rotational formulation is an efficient approach for structures undergoing large displacements and rotations. However, conventional low-order co-rotational elements, such as two-node beam elements, inevitably introduce geometric discretization errors that can significantly affect predicted nonlinear responses, particularly in the post-buckling regime.  In this study, a novel high-order co-rotational beam element is developed for arbitrarily curved geometries. A local reference frame is attached to the undeformed configuration and undergoes rigid-body translation and rotation with each beam cross-section. Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) basis functions are employed to accurately represent the initial beam geometry. Shear deformation effects are also incorporated into the formulation. Curved beams with uniform and non-uniform curvature are used as numerical examples to demonstrate the performance of the proposed element. For verification, results are compared with published benchmarks and with simulations obtained using the conventional finite element method (ABAQUS). The results demonstrate high accuracy and computational efficiency in predicting the nonlinear mechanical behavior of arbitrarily shaped slender beams.

Presenting Author: Zhangxian Yuan Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Presenting Author Biography: Zhangxian Yuan is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His research interests lie primarily in the broad areas of structural mechanics, with a focus on developing theoretical models and computational techniques to understand and simulate the mechanical behavior of advanced structures.