Secondary torsional moment deformation effect in inelastic nonuniform torsion of bars of doubly symmetric cross section by BEM

In this paper a boundary element method is developed for the inelastic nonuniform torsional problem of simply or multiply connected prismatic bars of arbitrarily shaped doubly symmetric cross section, taking into account the secondary torsional moment deformation effect. The bar is subjected to arbitrarily distributed or concentrated torsional loading along its length, while its edges are subjected to the most general torsional boundary conditions. A displacement based formulation is developed and inelastic redistribution is modeled through a distributed plasticity model exploiting three dimensional material constitutive laws and numerical integration over the cross sections. An incremental–iterative solution strategy is adopted to resolve the elastic and plastic part of stress resultants along with an efficient iterative process to integrate the inelastic rate equations. The one dimensional primary angle of twist per unit length, a two dimensional secondary warping function and a scalar torsional shear correction factor are employed to account for the secondary torsional moment deformation effect. The latter is computed employing an energy approach under elastic conditions. Three boundary value problems with respect to (i) the primary warping function, (ii) the secondary warping one and (iii) the total angle of twist coupled with its primary part per unit length are formulated and numerically solved employing the boundary element method. Domain discretization is required only for the third problem, while shear locking is avoided through the developed numerical technique. Numerical results are worked out to illustrate the method, demonstrate its efficiency and wherever possible its accuracy.

► Beams of arbitrary doubly symmetric cross section under torsional loading.
► Inelastic redistribution is modeled through a distributed plasticity model.
► Secondary torsional moment deformation effect is taken into account.
► A BEM approach is employed alleviating shear locking and achieving high accuracy.
► Torsional shear correction factor and secondary warping function improve the results.