Dynamic analysis of partial-interaction Kant composite beams by weak-form quadrature element method

Abstract

In this paper, the Kant higher-order beam theory is applied to model each segment of the partial-interaction composite beams, aiming to capture as possible fidelity as the plane stress model. On this basis, the weak-form equation is obtained through the principle of virtual work. Besides, the weak-form quadrature element (WQE), as a counterpart of the conventional finite element (CFE), is derived and implemented to more efficiently solve problems, including free vibration eigenvalue analysis and dynamic responses prediction to moving loads. After the verification of all the programs developed, a series of numerical examples are given to investigate the WQE’s superiority on convergence rate and numerical smoothness over the CFE. At the end of the paper, the influences of structural damping and loads’ moving speed on impact factor of two-span continuous beams are analyzed. Numerical results show that the proposed WQE, due to the variable-order interpolation of the element, possesses overwhelmingly higher computational efficiency than the CFE, and the numerical smoothness problem in the internal force analysis is significantly alleviated by WQE method.