Analysis of warping deformation modes using higher order ANCF beam element

Most classical beam theories assume that the beam cross section remains a rigid surface under an arbitrary loading condition. However, in the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) continuum-based beams, this assumption can be relaxed allowing for capturing deformation modes that couple the cross-section deformation and beam bending, torsion, and/or elongation. The deformation modes captured by ANCF finite elements depend on the interpolating polynomials used. The most widely used spatial ANCF beam element employs linear approximation in the transverse direction, thereby restricting the cross section deformation and leading to locking problems. The objective of this investigation is to examine the behavior of a higher order ANCF beam element that includes quadratic interpolation in the transverse directions. This higher order element allows capturing warping and non-uniform stretching distribution. Furthermore, this higher order element allows for increasing the degree of continuity at the element interface. It is shown in this paper that the higher order ANCF beam element can be used effectively to capture warping and eliminate Poisson locking that characterizes lower order ANCF finite elements. It is also shown that increasing the degree of continuity requires a special attention in order to have acceptable results. Because higher order elements can be more computationally expensive than the lower order elements, the use of reduced integration for evaluating the stress forces and the use of explicit and implicit numerical integrations to solve the nonlinear dynamic equations of motion are investigated in this paper. It is shown that the use of some of these integration methods can be very effective in reducing the CPU time without adversely affecting the solution accuracy.