TWO-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF SLENDER STRUCTURES USING HIGH ORDER BOUNDARY ELEMENTS

Abstract

THIS PAPER ADDRESSES THE USE OF HIGHER ORDER ELEMENTS IN 2D BOUNDARY ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF SLENDER COMPONENTS SUBJECTED TO BENDING. FIRSTLY, THE TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATED TO AN EFICIENT USE OF HIGH ORDER BOUNDARY ELEMENT IS DISCUSSED. SUBSEQUENTLY, EFFECTIVE SCHEMES FOR OUTSIDE AND INSIDE INTEGRATION OF THE KERNEL TENSOR FUNCTIONS OVER THESE MACRO ELEMENTS, INVOLVING ELEMENT SUBDIVISION, ARE PROVIDED, SO THAT THEY CAN BE E±CIENTLY EMPLOYED TO SOLVE BENDING PROBLEMS INVOLVING HIGH ORDER VARIATION OF DISPLACEMENTS. THROUGH NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS, IT IS FINALLY SHOWN THAT THE BE METHOD CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED TO ANALYZE SLENDER STRUCTURES IN BENDING WITH HIGHER ORDER ELEMENTS, IF SPECIALIZED TECHNIQUES ARE EMPLOYED AND THE STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR IS CONSIDERED A PRIORI, SO THAT APPROPRIATE ELEMENTS CAN BE CHOSEN TO SOLVE A PARTICULAR PROBLEM.