Experimental verification of a beam element for thin-walled beams with torsion, distortion, and shear lag

Beam-type elements based on the theories of Euler-Bernoulli, Timoshenko, and Vlasov are widely used in civil engineering. However, shell and solid finite elements are often used when the effects on normal stresses of either shear deformation or distortion are considered important. Numerically validated in an earlier study with finite element models for shell-type structures, the same one-dimensional finite element model is further developed in this study with a low number of degrees of freedom per node that includes all the structural mechanisms without using 3D finite element models. Laboratory testing of an instrumented steel box girder is conducted, to improve validation of the goodness of fit of the finite element model with real structural behavior.