A Study on the Stiffness Locking Phenomena and Eigen Problem in a Curved Beam

곡선보의 강선 과잉 현상과 고유치에 관한 연구

A three-noded, with three degree-of-freedom at each node, in-plane curved beam element is formulated and employed in eigen-analysis of constant curvature beam. The conventional quadratic shape functions used in a three noded C .deg. type curved beam element produce such an undesirable large stiffness that a significant error is introduced in displacements and stresses. These phenomena are called 'Stiffness Locking Phenomena', which result from spurious strain energy due to inappropriate assumptions on independent isoparametric quadratic interpolation functions. Stiffness locking phenomena can be alleviated by using modified interpolation functions which get rid of spurious constraints of conventional interpolation functions. Eigenvalues and their modes as well as displacements and stresses may be locked because they are related to stiffness. Using modified curved beam element in eigenvalue problem of cantilever and arch, the property and performance of modified curved beam element are examined by numerical experimentations. In these eigen-analyses, mass matrices are calculated by using both modified and unmodified curved beam element, are compared with theoretical solutions. These comparisons show that the performance of the modified curved beam element is better than that of the unmodified curved beam element.