Lecture 6:

Beam Elements for Space Frame Analysis1

 Previously we established the resulting element stiffness

relation for a plane beam element by superimposing the  Hence, the plane beam element has three deformational
element stiffness relation for the two d.o.f bar element and modes, that may be uniquely described by three nodal d.o.f. :
the four d.o.f. beam element
 Axial deformation: v *x   v*x 
  * 
 Since the plane beam element has six nodal degrees of   v   v 1 
*

freedom ( ndof  6 )  Bending deformation: v*1 and v* 2  v* 2 

 
 The element may reproduce six linearly independent
deformation patterns  Here, v *x represents the elongation of the element, while v*1
and v* 2 represents the rotation of the two beam ends relative
 However, three of these deformation patterns corresponds to
to the longitudinal (beam) x  axis
rigid body motion ( nr  3 )

dx dx  A beam element restrained against the three rigid body

dz dz modes corresponds to a simply supported beam with the
 three deformational d.o.f. v* , for which the stiffness relation
reads:
 Two translations
 One rotation  v  d
T
x dz  dx  d z  L     S x* 
 *  E
A 0 0   v*x 
 
S   S 1  
*
0 4I 2 I   v*1   k * v*
 The number of linearly independent rows (or columns) L  
 S* 2   0 2 I 4 I  v* 2 
of k , that is denoted by rank  k  , becomes  

rank  k   ndof  nr  6  3  3

1
Moan (2003): Appendix A.7.4
  Since the rigid body modes do not contribute to the internal
work, the work carried out by the nodal forces S over the
nodal displacements v , must be the same as the work carried
out by S* over v*
  S*  v *  ST v
T

 S  ΤTd S*  ΤTd k * v*  ΤTd k *Τd v  kv

 Assuming small displacements, the relation between the six
nodal d.o.f. v , and the three deformational d.o.f. v* , may be
obtained by considering the geometry in the figure above
 The transformation of k * to account for the three rigid body
modes thus becomes
k  ΤTd k *Τd
 If we carry out the necessary matrix multiplications we obtain

v*x  vx 2  vx1  0 0  0 0 
 12 6 L 
v*1  v 1   vz 2  vz1  / L 
12 6 L 0

v* 2  v 2   vz 2  vz1  / L EI  4 L2 0 6 L 2 L2 
k  ΤTd k *Τd  3  
L   0 0 
 Or on matrix form  sym. 12 6L 
 
v   4 L2 
   x1 
 1 0 0 1 0 0   v z1 
 vx  
*
 v  where   AL2 / I , which is of course exactly the same
  1 1
v*   v*1    0  1 0 0    1   Td v stiffness matrix as obtained previously
 L L   vx 2 
v* 2    
  1 1 Remarks:
0  0 0 1   vz 2 
 L L  v  The above transformation of k * to incorporate the rigid
 2
body motion cannot be applied to the consistent nodal forces
 Note: The rotations v*1 and v* 2 are referred to the beam axis (S o )* to obtain S o
in the deformed (displaced) configuration while v 1 and v 2  The reason is that (S o )* do not account for the reaction
are rotations referred to the beam axis in the undeformed forces of the three restrained d.o.f. (of the simply supported
configuration beam)
Transformations of Element Properties in 2D 3D Beam Element for Space Frames

 An arbitrary beam element in a space frame may be

subjected to;
 axial deformations,
 bending about two orthogonal axes, and
 twisting about the beam axis (torsion)

 Here we consider a straight 2-node element with constant

cross-sectional properties referred to a local Cartesian axis
system ( x, y, z );
 x  axis : longitudinal (beam) axis, and
 y, z  axes : principal axes of the cross section
 Assumptions:
1. The x  axis and the nodal points coincide with the centre
of the cross-section
2. Axial deformations due to twisting (warping) are neglected
3. The cross-section is doubly symmetric such that the shear
centre coincide with the area centre
 No coupling between:  For twisting deformations St.Venant’s Theory is adopted,
 Axial and bending deformations i.e. the cross section is not restrained against warping:
 Shear and torsional deformations
 The relation between the twisting angel t (  v* x ) and the
 The element may be uniquely defined in terms of six twisting moment T (  S*x ) , thus reads:
nodal d.o.f. per node
 ndof  2  6  12 GI t *
S*x  v x
L
v 
v   1 where vTi  vxi v yi vzi v xi v yi v zi  where G is the shear modulus while I t is the torsional
v2  moment of inertia  GI t represents the torsional stiffness

 Since there are no coupling,  Incorporating bending deformations about the z  axis and
 the four deformational modes are independently related to twisting into the deformational stiffness matrix k * for the
the ndof  12 nodal displacement components; plane beam element, we obtain the deformational stiffness
relation for the equivalent spatial beam element:
 axial deformations ( vx 1 and vx2 )
 S x*  A 0 0 0 0 0   v*x 
 bending about y  axis ( vz 1 , v y 1 ,vz 2 and v y2 )  *   0 4I  * 
 S y1  2I y 0 0 0
 bending about z  axis ( v y1 , v z 1 ,v y2 and v z 2 )  y   v y1 
S  E  0 2I y
*
4I y 0 0 0  v* y 2 
 twisting about the beam axis ( v x 1 and v x2 ) S*   *y 2     *  k v
* *

 S z1  L  0 0 0 4I z 2I z 0   v z1 
 S*z 2  0 0 0 2I z 4I z 0   v* z 2 
 The stiffness relation for the axial deformation and the two  *    
bending modes have been established previously  S x  0 0 0 0 0 GI t / E   v* x 
  The transformation of k * to account for the nr  6 rigid
body modes thus becomes

k  ΤTd k *Τd

 The element property matrices ( k and S o ), referring to local

coordinate axes ( x, y, z ), transforms to global axes ( x , y , z )
analogous to the plane beam element, such that

k  ΤTg kΤg
S  kv  S o
where
S o  ΤTg S o

 In 3D, the transformation matrix Τg is established on basis

of the Τo matrix as follows

where I y   z 2 dA and I z   y 2 dA are the second moment  Τo 0 0 0

A A 0 Τo 0 0
of area, about the two principal axes of the cross section, Τg   
0 0 Τo 0
respectively  
0 0 0 Τo 
 As for the equivalent planar beam element the relation
between the twelve nodal d.o.f. v , and the six deformational where Τo involves the direction cosines between the two sets
d.o.f. v* , may be obtained by geometrical considerations: of Cartesian axes ( x, y, z ), and ( x , y , z ),
 vx1 
v *
  1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0   v y1 
 cos( x, x ) cos( x, y ) cos( x, z ) 
Τo  cos( y, x ) cos( y, y ) cos( y, z ) 
x
  
v
*
 0 0 1/ L 0 1 0 0 0 1/ L 0 0 0   v z1   
 y1  
v*
 y2
 0 0 1/ L 0 0 0 0 0 1/ L 0 1 0   v x1   cos( z , x ) cos( z , y ) cos( z , z ) 
v*      Td v
v
*
 z1   0 1/ L 0 0 0 1 0 1/ L 0 0 0 0   v y1 
v   0 1/ L  
*
z2
0 0 0 0 0 1/ L 0 0 0 1   v z1 
    such that cos( x, z ) is the cosine of the angle between the local
 v
*
  0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0   
x
  x  axis and the global z  axis
v z 2 
Example: Consistent Nodal Forces for a 3D Beam 3D Beam with Arbitrary Cross Section

 Since we cannot transform the consistent nodal forces (S o )* to

obtain S o , the consistent nodal load vector S o have to be
established in terms of the 12 nodal d.o.f. v
 So far, we have assumed that there are no coupling between:
 For the general case of a linearly varying distributed load
acting perpendicular to the beam axis  Axial and bending deformations
p y ( x )  p y1  x  ( p y 2  p y 1 ) / L  Shear and torsional deformations
p z ( x )  p z1  x  ( p z 2  p z1 ) / L
 For the more general case of an arbitrary unsymmetric cross
where p y and pz are the components in the two principal axis section, however, the shear centre do not coincide with the
centre of area
directions, the consistent nodal load vector referred to the
local axes is obtained as:  But, if we assume that:
 0   0  1. The local x  axis intersects the centre of area and that the
 21 p  9 p   9 p  21 p 
 y1 y2   y1 y2  local axes y and z are principal axes
S 
o
L  21 pz1  9 pz 2  L  9 pz1  21 pz 2 
S o   1o  , S1o    and S 2  
o
 2. The d.o.f. are defined as shown in the figure above, that is:
S 2  60  0  60  0 
 3Lpz1  2 Lpz 2   2 Lpz1  3Lpz 2   v x , v y and v z are referred to the centre of area, while
   
 3Lp y1  2 Lp y 2   2 Lp y1  3Lp y 2 
 vˆ x , vˆ y and vˆ z are referred to the shear centre
  The element property matrices, k and S , referred to local
o
 The element property matrices referred to the centre of area
axes ( x, y , z ) are still valid, however, now denoted k s and d.o.f., v, then becomes:
S so , since they are referred to the vector of d.o.f. v s , that is
defined as: k  ΤTs k s Τs
S o  ΤTs Sso
v 
v s   s1  where vTsi  vxi vˆ yi vˆzi vˆ xi v yi v zi 
 v s2 
 In 3D, the eccentricity transformation matrix reads:
 Before assembly, it becomes necessary to transform the
v  
element property matrices, k s and S so , that are partly referred  vxi   xi 
to d.o.f. defined at the shear centre, to a common set of d.o.f., v   v yi 
v , defined at the centre of area  yi   
 vzi   I t ei   vzi 
vi         Τei v i
 The relation between the d.o.f. v s and v, is established 0 I   v xi 
  xi  
v
analogous to that of the eccentricity transformation v yi   
matrices, thus we obtain:    v 
 yi 
 
v  zi  
 v  t 0   v1   v zi 
v s   s1    s  Τs v
 v s2   0 t s   v 2  where
where  0 ezi eyi 
1 0 0 0 0 0  
t ei   ezi 0 exi 
0 1 0  zs 0 0
   eyi exi 0 

0 0 1 ys 0 0
ts   
0 0 0 1 0 0 and where exi  xi  xi , eyi  yi  yi and ezi  zi  zi defines
0 0 0 0 1 0 the components of the eccentricity vector of nodal point ‘i’
 
0 0 0 0 0 1
eiT   exi eyi ezi 
and where ys and zs denote the location of the shear centre
relative to the centre of area
 In the general case of a beam element with two eccentric
nodes, the transformation matrix reads:

 v  Τ 0   v1 
v   1    e1     Τ e v
 v 2   0 Τe2   v 2 

 Since the transformation matrix Τe is orthogonal , the

element stiffness and consistent nodal force vector referred
to the master nodes are given by

k   ΤTe kΤe  ΤTe ΤTg ΤTs ΤTd k *Τd Τs Τg Τe

S o  ΤTe S o  ΤTe ΤTg ΤTs S o