On the importance of cross-sectional warping in solid composite beams

The relative importance of the cross-sectional warping components in compos ite beams is studied and demonstrated using an exact solution for solid ort hotropic beam of arbitrary cross-sectional geometry that undergoes a bendin g moment. In light of the effort required for warping modeling in general n umerical schemes of composite beams, the present study contributes to the u nderstanding of the importance of modeling the in-plane and the out-of-plan e warping components. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.