A new beam element for analyzing geometrical and physical nonlinearity

Based on Timoshenko’s beam theory and Vlasov’s thin-walled member theory, a new model of spatial thin-walled beam element is developed for analyzing geometrical and physical nonlinearity, which incorporates an interior node and independent interpolations of bending angles and warp and takes diversified factors into consideration, such as traverse shear deformation, torsional shear deformation and their coupling, coupling of flexure and torsion, and the second shear stress. The geometrical nonlinear strain is formulated in updated Lagarange (UL) and the corresponding stiffness matrix is derived. The perfectly plastic model is used to account for physical nonlinearity, and the yield rule of von Mises and incremental relationship of Prandtle–Reuss are adopted. Elastoplastic stiffness matrix is obtained by numerical integration based on the finite segment method, and a finite element program is compiled. Numerical examples manifest that the proposed model is accurate and feasible in the analysis of thin-walled structures.