Nonlinear analysis of members curved in space with warping and Wagner effects

The centroidal axis of a member that is curved in space is generally a space curve. The curvature of the space curve is not necessarily in the direction of either of the principal axes of the cross-section, but can be resolved into components in the directions of both of these principal axes. Hence, a member curved in space is primarily subjected to combined compressive, biaxial bending and torsional actions under vertical (or gravity) loading. In addition, warping actions in particular may occur in curved members with an open thin-walled cross-section, and as the deformations increase, significant interactions of the compressive, biaxial bending and torsional actions occur and profoundly nonlinear deformations are developed in the nonlinear range of structural response. This makes the nonlinear behaviour of a member curved in space very complicated, making it difficult to obtain a consistent differential equation of equilibrium for the nonlinear analysis of members curved in space. In addition, because torsion is one of the primary actions in these members, when the torsional deformations become large, the Wagner effects including both Wagner moment and the conjugate Wagner strain terms are increasingly significant and need to be included in the nonlinear analysis. This paper takes advantage of the merits of so-called “geometrically exact beam theory” and the weak form formulation of the differential equations of equilibrium in beam theory, and it develops consistent differential equations of equilibrium for the nonlinear elastic analysis of members curved in space with warping and Wagner effects. The application of the nonlinear differential equations of equilibrium to various problems is illustrated.