Warping shear stresses in nonuniform torsion by BEM

Abstract

In this paper a boundary element method is developed for the nonuniform torsion of simply or multiply connected prismatic bars of arbitrary cross section. The bar is subjected to an arbitrarily distributed twisting moment, while its edges are restrained by the most general linear torsional boundary conditions. Since warping is prevented, beside the Saint–Venant torsional shear stresses, the warping normal and shear stresses are also computed. Three boundary value problems with respect to the variable along the beam angle of twist and to the primary and secondary warping functions are formulated and solved employing a BEM approach. Both the warping and the torsion constants using only boundary discretization together with the torsional shear stresses and the warping normal and shear stresses are computed. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the method and demonstrate its efficiency and accuracy. The magnitude of the warping shear stresses due to restrained warping is investigated by numerical examples with great practical interest.