Stress-Based Finite Element Methods for Dynamics Analysis of Euler-Bernoulli Beams with Various Boundary Conditions

Abstract In this research, two stress-based finite element methods including the curvature-based finite element method (CFE) and the curvature-derivative-based finite element method (CDFE) are developed for dynamics analysis of Euler-Bernoulli beams with different boundary conditions. In CFE, the curvature distribution of the Euler-Bernoulli beams is approximated by its nodal curvatures then the displacement distribution is obtained by its integration. In CDFE, the displacement distribution is approximated in terms of nodal curvature derivatives by integration of the curvature derivative distribution. In the introduced methods, compared with displacement-based finite element method (DFE), not only the required number of degrees of freedom is reduced, but also the continuity of stress at nodal points is satisfied. In this paper, the natural frequencies of beams with different type of boundary conditions are obtained using both CFE and CDFE methods. Furthermore, some numerical examples for the static and dynamic response of some beams are solved and compared with those obtained by DFE method.