Curvature-Based Finite Element Method for Euler-Bernoulli Beams

Abstract

This paper presents a new method called the curvature-based finite element method to solve Euler-Bernoulli beam problems. An approximated curvature distribution is selected first, and then the approximated transverse displacement is determined by double integrations. Four numerical examples demonstrate the validity of the method, and the results show that the errors are smaller than those generated by a conventional method, the displacement-based finite element method, for comparison based on the same number of degrees of freedom.