A finite element formulation for sliding beams, Part I

✍ Scribed by K. Behdinan; B. Tabarrok

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 286 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0029-5981
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0207(19981215)43:7<1309::aid-nme456>3.0.co;2-2

✦ Synopsis

We use the updated Lagrangian and the co-rotational finite element methods to obtain solutions for geometrically non-linear flexible sliding beams. Finite element formulations are normally carried out for fixed domains. Since the sliding beam is a system of changing mass, first we discretize the system by introducing a variable-domain beam element and model the sliding beam by a fixed number of elements with changing length. Second, we transform the system governing equations of motion to a fixed domain and use conventional finite elements (fixed size and number) to discretize the system. Then our investigation is followed by a comparison between two formulations. Finally, we use the co-rotational method in conjunction with a variable domain beam element to obtain the discretized system equations. To do so, we consider the beam to slide with respect to a fixed channel and later we consider a formulation in which the beam remains at rest and the channel slides with a prescribed velocity. We show that both formulations end up with identical discretized equations of motion.