Parametric 3D elastic solutions of beams involved in frame structures

Abstract

Frame structures have been traditionally represented as an assembling of components, these last described within the beam theory framework. In the case of frames involving complex components in which classical beam theory could fail, 3D descriptions seem the only valid route for performing accurate enough analyses. In this work we propose a framework for frame structure analyses that proceeds by assembling the condensed parametric rigidity matrices associated with the elementary beams composing the beams involved in the frame structure. This approach allows a macroscopic analysis in which only the condensed degrees of freedom at the elementary beams interfaces are considered, while fine 3D parametric descriptions are retained for local analyses.