Static analysis of thin-walled beams accounting for nonlinearities

Abstract

This paper presents numerical results concerning the nonlinear analysis of thin-walled isotropic structures via 1 D structural theories built with the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF). Both geometrical and material nonlinearities are accounted for, and square, C- and T-shaped beams are considered. The results focus on equilibrium curves, displacement, and stress distributions. Comparisons with literature and 3 D finite elements (FE) are provided to assess the formulation’s accuracy and computational efficiency. It is shown how 1 D models based on Lagrange expansions of the displacement field are comparable to 3 D FE regarding the accuracy but require considerably fewer degrees of freedom.