Distortional and Warping Analysis of Rectangular Thin-walled Closed Beams

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to present a warping and distortional analysis of thin-walled box beams. In this project, the behavior of thin-walled box beams in rectangular shape under different loadings and boundary conditions has been studied. The torsional warping and distortion deformations were predicted using pre-assigned functions which formed a stiffness matrix equation to solve the one-dimensional problem using a standard two-node displacement-based C0-continous finite element approach. A computer program was developed using Fortran Language to carry out the numerical analysis and which was compared with the results using existing Finite Element Method Software – Abaqus shell models. The result was also compared with the work by other researchers to check its accuracy and validity.