Large displacement analysis of three‐dimensional beam structures

An updated Lagrangian and a total Lagrangian formulation of a three‐dimensional beam element are presented for large displacement and large rotation analysis. It is shown that the two formulations yield identical element stiffness matrices and nodal point force vectors, and that the updated Lagragian formulation is computationally more effective. This formulation has been implemented and the resulted of some sample analyses are given.