A novel GBT-formulation for thin-walled FGM-beam-structures based on a reference beam problem

Abstract

This paper proposes an efficient generalized beam theory (GBT) formulation, which accounts for cross-sectional deformations in slender prismatic structures. It was shown by the authors in a recent publication [1] that in-plane distortional deformations and accompanied out of plane warping deformations of the cross-section influence the accuracy of results in beam dynamics especially if thin-walled cross-sections are applied. The GBT formulation proposed in [1] overcomes the inaccuracies of classical beam mechanics, however, requires a two-dimensional plane discretization of the cross-section. The computational complexity can be reduced vastly, if thin-walled cross-sections can be discretized with one-dimensional elements. Consequently, this paper discusses an approach with a line mesh discretizing the cross-section and having six degrees of freedom at each node. The membrane part consists of massless micro-polar rotations (drilling rotations) and can be derived independently from the bending part, where a shear elastic formulation is selected.