BEAM ELEMENTS BASED ON A HIGHER-ORDER THEORY .1. FORMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE

The flexure of deep beams, thick plates and shear flexible (e.g. lamin ated composite) beams and plates is often approached through a finite element formulation, based on the Lo-Christensen-Wu (LCW) theory. This paper is a systematic analytical evaluation of the use of the LCW hig her order theory for finite element formulation. The accuracy and othe r features of the computational model are evaluated by comparing finit e element method (FEM) results with available closed form classical an d elasticity solutions. Wherever possible, errors are predicted by an a priori analysis using these solutions and concepts from an understan ding of what the finite element method does.