Nonlinear dynamic analysis of Timoshenko beams by BEM. Part I: Theory and numerical implementation

In this two-part contribution, a boundary element method is developed for the nonlinear dynamic analysis of beams of arbitrary doubly symmetric simply or multiply connected constant cross section, undergoing moderate large displacements and small deformations under general boundary conditions, taking into account the effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia. Part I is devoted to the theoretical developments and their numerical implementation and Part II discusses analytical and numerical results obtained from both analytical or numerical research efforts from the literature and the proposed method. The beam is subjected to the combined action of arbitrarily distributed or concentrated transverse loading and bending moments in both directions as well as to axial loading. To account for shear deformations, the concept of shear deformation coefficients is used. Five boundary value problems are formulated with respect to the transverse displacements, to the axial displacement and to two stress functions and solved using the Analog Equation Method, a BEM based method. Application of the boundary element technique yields a nonlinear coupled system of equations of motion. The solution of this system is accomplished iteratively by employing the average acceleration method in combination with the modified Newton–Raphson method. The evaluation of the shear deformation coefficients is accomplished from the aforementioned stress functions using only boundary integration. The proposed model takes into account the coupling effects of bending and shear deformations along the member, as well as the shear forces along the span induced by the applied axial loading.