A STUDY OF CONNECTING SOLID AND BEAM ELEMENTS WITH CROSS-SECTIONAL DEFORMATION

Abstract

In structural analysis, depending on the shape of the objective structure and members, the use of both solid elements and beam elements can improve the computational efficiency. However, it is known that the accuracy of stress distribution near connection is deteriorated for the members such as thin-walled crosssections and composite cross-sections, where cross-sectional deformation cannot be ignored. The reason for the problem is the inconsistency between the displacement fields of the beam element which assumes plane sections remain plane and the solid element. To solve this problem, we propose a method to connect a beam element which allows for the cross-sectional deformation due to shear lag and transverse shear and the solid element. Feasibility of the proposed method is confirmed through a couple of numerical examples by comparing the solution of the method with that of the model with the only solid element.