DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW FRAME FINITE-ELEMENT FOR CRASH ANALYSIS, USING AMIXED VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE AND ROTATIONS AS INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

This paper deals with the development and application of a new space c urved frame finite element to be used for crash analysis (non-linear). The frame finite element has been developed using a mixed variational principle (complementary form) and using rotations as independent var iables. The formulation has jeer, validated for problems of large defl ection and rotation, and for problems involving initially curved membe rs. Based on the validation performed, it is expected that crash probl ems may be modelled using a single element per member thus retaining c omputational efficiency while performing an accurate analysis. An illu strative example (modelling of an S-leg seat) is presented here to ill ustrate the benefits of the proposed approach to a designer.