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Beam Elements - Bernoulli or Timoshenko
Beam Elements - Bernoulli or Timoshenko
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At this stage it is worth to distinguish two different beam theories: In ANSYS beam elements are available according to the theory of Bernoulli or according to the theory of Timoshenko, respectively. The user should know that shear stresses are not calculated for Bernoulli beam elements but only for Timoshenko beam elements. Bending stresses (linear over the thickness) are available in both beam theories. Since the effect of shear is neglected using Bernoulli beam elements the structure will show a stiffer behaviour as if a Timoshenko beam model was used. This is illustrated in Figure 3.
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It is worth to know about these both theories when using beam elements to choose the correct element type if shear stresses are for example of interest. Considering the deformation it should be mentioned that differences cannot be neglected any more if the ratio of the thickness to the length of the beam - d/l exceeds the limit of 1/10, i.e. if the beam cannot be considered any more as thin. In [4] the analytical solution for the maximum displacement in y-direction according to Bernoulli is given:
We observe that the numerical solution with BEAM3/BEAM4 is almost exact. However, since shear stresses are always present in reality, the user has a more accurate result, taking BEAM188/BEAM189. Recommendation: ANSYS: In general, the users should take BEAM188/189 if possible. ANSYS Workbench: By default, BEAM188 is used. Author: Thomas Nelson, Erke Wang, CADFEM GmbH, Munich, Germany Related Content:
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