MODIFIED BEAM ELEMENTS - AN EFFICIENT ALTERNATIVE TO PLATE FINITE ELEMENTS FOR MODELLING THE BEHAVIOUR OF THIN-WALLED STEEL STRUCTURES

摘要

Long term objective of these developments is to propose an efficient alternative to the use of plate finite elements for the modelling of members with deformable cross-section. In this perspective, the following conclusions can be drawn : 1. Even if the chosen displacement field could be improved and completed in order to be more accurate regarding some particular problems, the total number of degrees of freedom of the system should still be less than the one obtained with a plate finite element model. This leads to significantly reduced computation time and storage space. 2. Global geometry of the structures is decribed by axial models, easier to use than full tri-dimensional plate models. Furthermore results are obtained in term of global characteristics.