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A corotational procedure that handles

large rotations of spatial beam structures
Article in Computers & Structures December 1987
Impact Factor: 2.13 DOI: 10.1016/0045-7949(87)90290-2

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Cm$~ers

6 S~~~rures Vol. 27. No. 6. pp. 769-781.

1987
0

Printed in Great Britain.

aa-7949187
13.00 + oxa
1987 Pcrgamon Journals Lid.

A COROTATIONAL
PROCEDURE THAT HANDLES
LARGE ROTATIONS OF SPATIAL BEAM STRUCTURES
Kuo-MO HSIAO,HORNG-JANNHORNG and YEH-REN CHEN
~~rtment

of Mechanic& Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu.

Taiwan, Republic of China
(Received 5 January 1987)

Abstract-A practical motion process of the three dimensional beam element is presented to remove the
restriction of small rotations between two successive increments for large displacement and large rotation
analysis of space frames using incremental-iterative methods. In order to improve convergence properties
of the equilibrium iteration, an n-cycle iteration scheme is introduced.
The nonlinear formulation is based on the corotational formulation. The transformation of the element
coordinate system is assumed to be accomplished by a translation and two sueesssive rigid body rotations:
a transverse rotation followed by an axial rotation. The element formulation is derived based on the small
deflection beam theory with the inclusion of the effect of axial force in the element coordinate system.
The membrane strain along the deformed beam axis obtained from the elongation of the arc length of
the beam element is assumed to be constant. The element internal nodal forces are cakulated using the
total defo~atioM1 nodal rotations. Two methods, referred to as direct method and incremental method,
are proposed in this paper to calculate the total defo~~ona~ rotations.
An incremental-iterative method based on the Newto~Rap~n
method combined with arc length
control is adopted. Numerical studies are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the
present method.

1. INTRODUCTION

The development of new and efficient formulations

for the nonlinear analysis of beam structures has
attracted the study of many researchers in recent
years, and different alternative formulation strategies
and procedures to accomodate large rotation capability during the large defo~ation
process have been
presented [I-lo]. These formulations can be divided
into three categories: Total Lagrangian (TL) formulation, Updated Lagrangian (UL) formulation and
Corotational (CR) formulation. It should be noted
that within the corotating system either a TL or a
UL formulation, or even a formulation based on a
small deflection theory may be employed. The large
number of publications on the nonlinear analysis of
beam structures is, at least partially, due to the fact
that various kinematic nonlinear formulations can
be employed. It seems that large rotations in plane
frames pose no major problem. Hsiao and Hou [IO]
introduced a simple and effective corotational formulation of beam element and numerical procedure,
which can remove the restriction of small rotations
between two successive increments for the large
displacement analysis of plane frames using incremental-iterative methods. Unfortunately, the method
presented in [lo] cannot be applied to three dimensional frames. The difficulty of obtaining effective
solutions is particularly pronounced in the analysis of
spatial beam structures; a general three dimensional
nonlinear formulation is not a simple extension of a
two dimensional fo~ulation,
because large rotations
in three dimensional analysis are not true vector

quantities; that is, they do not comply with the rules

of vector operations and the result will in general
depend on the order in whch the rotations are
taken. This point has been throughly discussed by
Argyris [1 I] and Wempner [ 121.
The problem of large rotations on space structures
has received wide attention in the ~terature; many
different strategies based on the TL, the UL, or the
CR formulations
have been reported, those of
[Z-S, 6, 1l-241 being only a small fraction of the total.
In 1191Hughes and Liu developed a specialized shell
element which can handle arbitrarily large rotations.
Argyris has covered the subject of corotational coordinates extensively including a lengthy discourse on
the subject of large rotations [20,21]. Belytschko er
al. [3,4, 14 have applied corotational formulation
to the dynamic analysis of space frames where arbitrarily large rotations can be expected. Horrigmoe
and Bergan (IS] have su~~fully
applied a corotational approach to their shell elements Rankin
and Brogan [23] have introduced a corotational
procedure which may enable existing shell element
formulations to be used in problems that contain
arbitrarily large rotations. Recently Hsiao 1241 has
proposed a motion process for triangular shell elements to remove the restriction of small rotations
between two successive increments for nonlinear
shell analysis using incremental-iterative
methods.
The wide range of numerical examples studied
in [3 4,7,9, 11 , 13, 15, 16,18,20,21,23-261 indicates
that the corotation approach, first described by
Argyris et al. [25], may be very useful in the analysis
of spatial structures containing arbitrarily large

770

Kuo-MO HSIAOet al.

rotations. However, most strategies based on the

corotational formulation suffer from one inherent
drawback: they are restricted to small rotations between two successive load increments during the
deformation process. This limitation arises because
the incremental nodal rotations are considered to be
vector quantities. Although the method introduced in
[24] may remove this restriction for triangular shell
elements, unfortunately,
this method cannot be
applied to the space beam elements, because, unlike
the shell elements, the element coordinate of the
space beam elements cannot be determined using
only nodal coordinates.
The objective in this paper is to present a practical
motion process of the three dimensional beam element which can remove the restriction of small
rotations between two successive increments for large
displacement and large rotation analysis of space
frames using incremental-iterative
methods. Here
the motion process presented in [24] is modified to
accomodate the characteristics of the motion of
beam elements. In this paper the transformation
between the element coordinate systems is assumed to
be accomplished by a translation and two successive
finite rotations: a lateral rotation about an axis
perpendicular to the current beam axis followed by
an axial rotation about the current beam axis. Two
methods, termed direct method and incremental
method, are introduced to describe the motion process of the beam element and to determine the total
deformational nodal rotations.
The dominant factors in the geometrical nonlinearities of space structures are attributable to finite
rotations, the strains remaining small. For space
frames discretized by finite elements, this implies that
the motion of the individual elements with proper size
will, to a large extent, consist of rigid body motion.

If the rigid body motion part is eliminated from the

total displacements, the deformational part of the
motion is always a small quantity relative to the local
element axes; thus, incorporated with the corotational
formulation, the small deflection beam theory with
the inclusion of the effect of axial force is adopted
here to deal with the large rotations but small strains
problems.
The numerical
algorithm
used here is an
incremental-iterative
method based on the NewtonRaphson method combined with constant arc length
of the incremental displacement vector [27,28]. In
order to improve the convergence properties of the
equilibrium iterations, an n-cycle iteration scheme,
which is an extension of the two-cycle iteration
scheme proposed in [lo], is introduced. Numerical
examples are presented and compared with the results
reported in the literature to demonstrate the accuracy
and efficiency of the proposed method.
2. COORDINATESYSTEMS
One of the basic considerations in formulating
nonlinear structural problems is the selection of a
description of motion. In the present study, the
corotational (CR) formulation is adopted. In this
formulation, each element is associated with a local
Cartesian element coordinate system 2, (i = 1,2, 3) as
shown in Fig. 1, that rotates and translates with the
element but does not deform with the element. The
element coordinate system used herein is a right
handed one and is defined as follows. The origin of
the element coordinate system is located at the local
node 1, the 2, axis passes through the centroids of
member end sections, and the Z2 and 5, axes are
parallel to the principal directions of the undeformed
end cross section.

Fig. 1. Coordinate systems, member deformations and associated forces.

Corotational

771

procedure for rotations of beam structures

Also shown in Fig. 1 is a fixed global coordinate

system xi (i = 1,2,3) used to define the location of the
nodal points. We note that the equilibrium equations
of a structure are written in the fixed global coordinate system, and the incremental nodal parameters of
the system of equations are also calculated in this
coordinate system. The element equations are first
formulated in the element coordinate system, and
then transformed to the global coordinate system
using standard procedure [29] prior to the element
assemblage process.
If we consider a vector B (or B if measured in the
_Zicoordinate system) with global components Bi
(i = 1,2,3), and element coordinate components Si
(i = 1,2,3), we have the following transformation:

P
!!

Fig. 2. Finite rotation of vector.

respectively; 4 is the angle of counterclockwise rotation, and n is the unit vector along the axis of
rotation.
3. CR-FORMULATION OF BEAM ELEMENT

where clti= cos(xi, Xj).

The beam element employed here has two nodes
with six degrees of freedom per node (Fig. 1): these
are the translations 0, in the fi (i = 1,2,3) directions
at nodes j (j = 1,2), and the rotations flj about the
Zi axes at nodes j (j = 1,2). The global nodal parameters for the system of equations associated with
the individual elements are chosen to be the translations Vii in the xi (i = 1,2,3) directions at nodes j
(j = 1,2), and rotations 0, about the xi (i = 1,2,3)
axes at nodes j (j = 1,2).
In this study an incremental-iterative
method is
used to solve the nonlinear equilibrium equations.
Both the incremental nodal translations and the
incremental nodal rotations are regarded as vector
quantities. Thus, using eqn (l), the nodal vectors,
AUj= {AU,j, AU,, AUjj) and AtIj = {A8ij, A&, Ae,},
referred to the global coordinate system can be
transformed to AUj = {AO,j, AUq, AOJj} and A4 =
{A&, A&, Ae,}, referred to the element coordinate
system, respectively.
It should be noted that Aej cannot be interpreted
as component rotations about Cartesian axes &.
In this study, Ae, = {Ae,, 0,0}, the components of
Ah along the 2, axis, and Afj,= (0, A&, AB,), the
components of A4 perpendicular to the R, axis, are
considered to be rotation vectors to define rotations,
details of which will be discussed later.
For convenience of the later discussion, the term
rotation vector is used to represent a finite rotation.
Figure 2 shows a vector R which as a result of the
application of a rotation vector 4n is transported to
a new position R. The relation between R and R
may be expressed as [30]
R=cos+R+(l

The formulation of the beam element developed

here is applicable to arbitrarily large rotations but
restricted to small rotations relative to the element
axis. The beam element is formulated in the element
coordinate system based on the small deflection beam
theory with the inclusion of the effect of axial force.
The element, as shown in Fig. 1, has two nodes with
six degrees of freedom per node, and can transmit an
axial force, two shear forces, two bending moments
and a torque. Herein the beam element is assumed to
be straight and of constant cross section. The cross
section is doubly symmetric, thus excluding coupling
of the torsional stiffness to that of bending and axial
stiffness. Shearing deformations and warping effects
are neglected. The material is assumed to be linearly
elastic.
The element stiffness matrix is obtained by superimposing its bending, geometric, torsional and axial
stiffness matrices. The element internal nodal forces
are evaluated using the total deformations.
3.1. Kinematics of beam element
It is assumed that the lateral deflection curves of
the beam member are the cubic Hermitian polynomials in the & and .?s directions of the element
coordinates (the principal directions of the undeformed end cross section), and that the axial
rotation varies linearly along the member. The membrane strain along the deformed element axis is
assumed to be constant. Thus, the membrane strain
can be evaluated from the elongation of the arc
length of the member.
The lateral deflection curves of the beam member
may be given by

-cos4)(n.R)n
+ sin 4(n x R),

(2)

where * and x denote the dot and the cross product

where a bar over a quantity denotes that it is defined

in the element coordinate system. P and Ware lateral

IWO-MOHstao et al
stant membrane strain along the deformed beam axis,
the membrane strain of the beam axis can be written
as
Cl = (S - SJ)/&,

undeformed

end section

Fig. 3. Deformational nodal rotations.

deflections in the & and i, directions, respectively. iii,

and ej (i = 2,3; j = f , 2) are the nodal displacements
and rotations shown in Fig. 1. N, (i = i,4) are shape
functions and are given by
N, = l/4(1 - #(2

+ t)

N2 = c/8(1 - r)(l - r)

(6)

where S, = L is the initial arc length of the beam axis.

Figure 3 shows that the normals of the undeformed
element end sections at nodes j (j = 1,2), 6, are
rotated to g,,,, the current deformed normals of the
element end sections by the rotation vectors e)l,,
which is ~~ndicular
to the f,axis of the element
coordinate system. The representations of the lateral
deformational nodal rotations are based on the
assumptions that these rotations are small. On the
basis of this assumption e,,, the 5, (i = 2,3) components of the rotation vectors 6,,j are chosen to be the
Iateral defo~ational
nodal rotations about Zi axes at
nodes j. Note that the direction of the undeformed
normal of the element end sections coincides with the
positive direction of the 5, axis. Thus, the second
subscript j of gq is omitted throughout this paper.
3.2. Determination of element coordinate system and
element de~ormat~o~al rotations

Assume that the incremental-iterative

method is
used for the solution of nonlinear equilibrium equaNl = c/8(1 + c*)(l + r),
(4) tions and the equilibrium configuration of the Ith
increment is known. Let AUj and A@,(j = 1,2) be
where c = Zi, - %ir is the current chord length of the incremental nodal displacement and rotation
the beam member, and f, are the 2, coordinates of vectors of an element at nodes j extracted from the
incremental nodal parameters of the system of equanodes j (j = I, 2) in the element coordinate system;
tions. At this point, an interesting and relevant
5 = - I + 23,/c is a nondimensional coordinate.
question arises. Given the incremental nodal disNote that in this study, the relative displacements
placements and rotations, how are the current
of the elements are referred to the element coodinate
system, Due to the definition of the element co- element coordinate system, the axial and lateral
ordinate system, the lateral nodal displa~ments 041 defo~ationa1 nodal rotations dete~ined?
Let xj (j = 1,2) denote the node coordinate
(i = 2,3) at the nodal points j (j = 1,2) are identical
vectors of an element in its Ith equilibrium conto zero. The nonzero deformational nodal displacefiguration; the current node coordinate vectors xj
ments of an element can be divided into the axial
are obtained by adding the incremental nodal disrelative displacement, the axial relative rotation and
lateral deformational rotations. The element defor- placement vectors AUj, so that
mation can be decomposed into the membrane deformation, the torsional deformation and the flexural
xj = x, + AU,.
(7)
deformation. Herein the flexural deformation is deThe 3, axis of the current element coordinate
termined by the lateral deformational nodal rotations
system can then be constructed using x, given in
using elementary beam theory and the torsional
eqn (7) and the definition of the element coordinate
deformation is determined from the axial relative
nodal rotation, while the membrane deformation is system. But, unlike the cases of triangular shell
obtained from the change of arc length of the beam elements fl5, 18,241, the .?r and 5 axes cannot be
determined using only the node coordinates. The
axis which can be calculated from the lateral
determination
of the current element coordinate
deflection.
If the arc length of the beam axis is expressed by system will be discussed in the process of element
motion.
1
For determining the element deformational nodal
(1 + p2 -i- @2)2 d&,
S=c/2
(5) rotation and element rigid body rotations, we proi -1
pose two methods to describe the process of the
element motion in this paper. In the first method,
where c is the current chord length of the beam
member, ( ) denotes x,-derivatives and P and rii are referred to as the direct method, the lateral deformational nodal rotations are determined from the
given in eqn (3), then from the assumption of conN,= l/4(1 +S)(Z--r)

Corotational

773

procedure for rotations of beam structures

(b)

(d)

Fig. 4. Process of element motion.

orientations
of the undeformed
and deformed normals of the element end sections. In the second
method, referred to as incremental method, the total
lateral deformational nodal rotations are calculated
by incrementation. For both methods, the total twist
nodal rotations are determined by incrementation.
The processes of element motions and the methods
corresponding to these motion processes to determine
the deformational
nodal rotations and element
coordinate system are described as follows.
(a) Direct mefhod. The process of element motion
is divided into the following six steps.

1. A rigid body translation by AU,. The whole

element is translated by AU,, where AU, is the
incremental nodal displacement vector of node 1. The
origin of the 3, axes is translated to the origin of the
Zi axes as shown in Fig. 4(a).
2. A lateral rigid body rotation by the rotation
vector 8. The rotation vector 6 (referred to *ii
coordinate system) is given by
&=cos-(e,*e,)

42,x e,
IIel x e,II

(8)

where e, and e, are unit vectors associated with the

774

Kuo-MO

HSIAOef al.

.f, and x, axes rcspcclivcly. The rotation vector oi,

passing through node 1, is applied to the whole
element except tQ, the deformed normals of the
element end sections at nodes j (j = 1,2) at the Ith
equilibrium configuration. Here it is assumed that e,,,
are not rotated by the rotation vector ci, but are
translated with the motion of nodes j (Figs 4(b) and
(d)). The & axes are rotated by an angle about the
axis perpendicular to the 2, and f, axes (Fig. 4(a)),
and the resultant coordinate system is labeled 2; axes
(Fig. 4(c)). As can be seen, the 2; axis coincides with
the 2, axis.
3. Finite rotations of C,+by the rotation vectors
Afig. The deformed normals c?~are rotated to &,
by the application of the rotation vectors A6:, as
shown in Figs 4(c) and (d), where AtiLj are the
components of Afij (j = 1,2) (the given incremental
nodal rotation vectors referred to 2: coordinate
system) perpendicular to the Xi axis.
4. Twist rotations by A4j. The rotation vectors
A4j are applied to nodes j (j = 1,2), where AtJj are
given by
A& = A&, - /I

(9)

/? = l/2(6&, + A&,),

(10)

in which tI,, are the components of A& along the 5;

axis as shown in Fig. 4(c).
5. A stretch by (c - c)e,. Node 2 is translated
along the 2, axis (Fig. 4(d)), where c and c are chord
lengths of the element corresponding to the current
configuration and the equilibrium configuration of
the Ith increment.
6. An axial rigid body rotation by g. The rotation
vector (eqn (10)) passing through node 1 is applied to
the whole element. The intermediate axes, ai, are
rotated about the 2; axis by an angle 11
fi 1)to produce
the & axes of the current element coordinate system
as shown in Fig. 4(f). Vectors El and 5; shown in
Fig. 4(d) are rotated by this rotation vector to reach
their final positions Z, and &, (not shown in Fig. 4(f)).
Ihe orientations of the current element coordinate
axes fi may be obtained from the rigid body rotations
caused by the rotation vectors given in steps 2 and 6
of the above process. The orientation of the deformed
normals gdi and the undeformed normal 5, of the
element are also determined by the above process
of motion. Thus, the lateral deformational nodal
rotation vectors, e,, referred to the current element
coordinate system may be expressed as

ii,
11

0
e;I,= IT4 cos-(E:~~)

x *dj

II& x ~,$II

0
e;.=

f$, = 4 + (A8, - a).

(13)

1103,
For simplicity of computation, only eqn (13) is
used to calculate the total lateral deformational nodal
rotations for the numerical examples studied in this
paper. It is believed that identical results will be
obtained when eqn (11) is used.

(11)

O3j

The current axial deformational

may be obtained by

whcrc 4, is the axial dcformational nodal rotation

vector of the Zth equilibrium configuration at nodes
j (j = 1,2); A$j is given in eqn (9).
(b) Incremental method. In this method, the motion
process is also divided into six steps. Only steps 2 and
3 of this process are different from those in the direct
method, and are described below.
2. A rigid body rotation by o?.The rotation vector
6i (eqn (8)) passing through node 1 is applied to the
whole element. As can be seen in Figs 4(b) and (e),
the deformed normals of the Ith increment gdl are
rotated to an intermediate position I&;.
3. Deformational rotations by (68;, - a). The
intermediate deformed normals *EL are rotated to
other intermediate positions 5; as shown in Fig. 4(e)
by the application of the rotation vectors (A&, - o?),
in which A#Aj are the components of AJj (j = 1,2)
perpendicular to 2; axis, and OSis the rotation vector
given in eqn (8) (referred to 2: coordinate system).
Vectors AgAj, oi and 6; (Fig. 4(e)) are rotated by
the rotation vector [ (eqn (10)) to their final positions
Afimj,6 and 4 (referred to the current element coordinate system &), which are not shown in Fig. 4(f).
The element coordinate obtained from this process
is the same as that constructed by the direct method.
The orientations of the deformed and undeformed
normals of the element end sections can be determined from this process of motion as well. Thus,
the deformational nodal rotations can be calculated
using eqn (11). Due to the assumption of small
deformational nodal rotations, the vector operations
might be valid for the deformational nodal rotation
vectors. Thus, an alternative, referred to as incremental method, is introduced here. The concept of
this method is similar to that in [l&24]. The total
deformational rotations of the current configuration
referred to the current element coordinate are obtained by adding the incremental nodal rotations
(A&j-oS) to the deformational nodal rotations of the
equilibrium configuration of the Ith increment, and
are expressed as

3.3. Element st1~ne.s.smatrix

nodal rotations

The total element stiffness matrix is formulated

by superimposing the bending stiffness matrix i&
and geometric stiffness matrix $ of the basic beam
element, and the axial stiffness matrix g,,, and the
(12) torsional stiffness matrix g, of the linear bar element.
The derivation of these matrices is well documented

115

Corotational procedure for rotations of beam structures

in the textbooks and thus will not be repeated here.
However, these matrices are given as follows.
(a) Bending stiffness matrix K,:

where GJ is the torsional rigidity and L is the initial

arc length of the beam axis.
3.4. Element nodal force vectors

(14)
where
r

12
-6L
-12

-6L
4L=
6L

-12
6L
12

2~~

6L

12
6L
-12

6L
4L
-6L

-12
-6L
12

6L

2L2

L-6L

-6L 1
2L
6L

(1%

4~2J

and
f

6L 1
2L2
-6L
9 (16)

The nodal force vectors of the elements corresponding to the global coordinate system are evaluated first in the current element coordinate system,
and then transformed to the global coordinate system
using standard procedure. Since small deformations
are assumed, the element nodal forces can-in
the
element coordinate system-be evaluated in much the
same way as in linear analysis. For linearly elastic
material properties the element nodal force vectors
can be calculated as follows.
(a) Bending nodal force vector t,:
&i=@,+K$,,

where L is the initial length of the beam axis, and

EI, and E13are the flexural rigidities about the 4 axis
and 2, axis respectively. The degrees of freedom
corresponding to $ are
ob=

{~,d2,,

&2.42*

~2,r&,,

(17)

022,42}r

where uU are nodal translations and gU are nodal

rotations as shown in Fig. 1.
(b) Geometric stiffness matrix &:

rt,=
[

$2
0

0
rt,,

(18)

36
-3L

-3L
4L2

-36

3L

-36

-3L
-L2

3L
36

3L

3L

4L2

4L2
-3L3L

-3L
-3636

-3L3L

-L2

-3L

-L2

-3L
and

K*&

3L
[ -3636
3L

1
(19)

-1

[ -1

9 (20)

4L2 I

(21)

where AE is the axial rigidity and L is the initial arc

length of the beam axis.
(d) Torsional stiffness matrix K,:
z(

GJ

=L

[ 11
1

-1

-1

where ~b={F31rn221,F,2,11-3,,F2,,~,,,F22r1U32}
is
shown in Fig. 2; Kb is the bending stiffness matrix
given in eqn (14); ab is the total bending deformation
vector given in eqn (17). Note that due to the
definition of the element coordinate system, the only
nonzero elements in ab are f$, the deformational
nodal rotations at nodes j (j = 1,2) about the fi
(i = 2,3) axes, which may be obtained by using eqns
(11) or (13).
(b) Axial nodal force vector Fm;,:
The element internal nodal forces are calculated by
the total nodal deformation rotations. The axial
nodal force vector F,,, = {I?,], F,2} (see Fig. 1) can be
evaluated by introducing nodal virtual displacements
80, = 6 {D,, , u12} at nodes 1 and 2 in the f, direction, and equating the work done by the axial nodal
force F,,, going through the virtual displacement
JO,,, to the work done by the internal stress resultant
T going through the virtual strain St,,, (that corresponds to the imposed virtual displacement) along
the deformed beam axis as
s

-L2

where L is the initial arc length of the beam axis and

F,, is the axial nodal force at node 2. The degrees of
freedom corresponding to KE are the same as that
corresponding to izb.
(c) Axial stiffness matrix KM:
it_=:

(23)

4L2

-6L

(22)

cm,Fm =

Tsr, dS,

(24)

where S is the current arc length of the beam axis.

The stress resultant T may be given by
T = AEF-,,

(25)

where A is the cross section area, E is Youngs

modulus and r,,, is the membrane strain of the current
deformation. From eqn (6), the virtual strain a<,,,
corresponding to ~50, can be expressed as

arm= as/s,
(1 + p2+ p2)nd{

So

(26)

Kuo-MO HSIAOelal.

776

in which 6c is the variation of the chord length of the

beam axis with respect to SD,,,.
Substituting eqns (S), (25), and (26) into eqn (24)
gives

Since the virtual nodal displacements aa, are

arbitrary, the axial nodal forces are obtained from
eqn (27) as

Because the assumption of the small strain and

small deformation, S2/S,c in eqn (28) is approximated by unity in this paper, and eqn (28) is thus
reduced to

5. SOLUTION

ALGORITHM

An incremental-iterative
method based on the
Newton-Raphson
method is adopted here. In order
to deal with the limit points and snap through, the
arc length of the incremental displacement vector
is kept constant during the equilibrium iteration
using Crisfields method [27,28]. An n-cycle iteration
scheme is introduced here to improve the convergence characteristics of the equilibrium iteration.
If the equiiibrium configuration of the Ith increment is assumed to be known, the system tangent
stiffness matrix KT then can be calculated at this
configuration and an initial displacement increment
Aq for the next increment may be obtained by using
Euler predictor as
Aq = A%,

(33)

where Al is the initial incremental loading parameter

and qT= Kf'P is the tangential displacement of unit
loading P.For all increments other than the first, Ai.
is obtained in much the same way as that mentioned
in [27] and is given by

for numerical computation.

(c) Torsional nodal force vector F,:

A1 = fAa(q;q,)2,
F,={;;;}=T{_;},

(30)

where 4 = ($,, - $,,) is the total relative rotation of

the member about the 2, axis, r&j are the total twist
rotations at nodes j (j = 1,2) about the fi axis and
are obtained in eqn (12), and &?,j (j = 1,2) are twist
moments shown in Fig. 1.

(34)

where the sign is chosen following an approach due

to Bergan and Ssreide [32] in which the sign follows
that of the previous increment unless the determinant
of the tangent stiffness matrix has changed the sign,
in which case a sign reversal is applied. Aa is the
incremental arc length used for the next increment,
and is determined by
Au = C, (JD/J,)2Au,

4. EQUILIBRIUM EQUATIONS AND

CONVERGENCE CRITERION

(35)

and
The nonlinear
pressed by

equilibrium

equation

may be ex(36)

$=F-IP=O,

(31)

where $ is the unbalanced force between the internal

nodal force vector F and the external nodal force 1P;
1 is a loading parameter and P is a normalized
loading vector. The internal nodal force vector is
obtained by summing up the element nodal force
vectors in the global coordinate system.
In this paper, a weighted Euclidean norm of the
unbalanced force [31] is employed as the error measure of the equilibrium state during the equilibrium
iterations, and the convergence criterion is given by
(32)
where N is the number of degrees of freedom for the
disceretized structure and p,& is a prescribed value of
error tolerance. Unless it is stated otherwise, the error
tolerance is set to lo- in this paper.

where: Au, is the arc length used for the Ith increment; J, is the number of iterations required to
achieve equilibrium for the Ith increment; JD is the
desired number of iterations; the safety factor, C,,
lies between 0.7 and 1.0, and the cut parameters C,
and C, are chosen to be 0.2 and 1.5, respectively, to
prevent yielding of an incremental displacement
which is too large or too small.
Using the displacement increment obtained in eqn
(33) and the method described in the previous section,
the internal nodal force vector F in eqn (31) associated with the current configuration can be calculated.
The loading parameter corresponding to the current
configuration is given by I = A+ AL, where I is the
convergent loading parameter at the Ith increment
and Al the loading parameter increment. Then the
unbalanced force $ can be obtained from eqn (31).
If the convergence criterion (eqn (32)) is not satisfied,
a displacement correction r and loading parameter

777

Corotationai procedure for rotations of beam structures

correction 61 [27,28] are added to the previous Aq
and AL respectively to obtain a new incremental
displacement and incremental loading parameter for
the next iteration. The values of r and 612may be
determined by

r=K;(-$

+61P)

(37)

and
Au* = (Aq + r)(Aq + r),

(38)

where Kr may be the tangent stiffness matrix at some

known configuration.
This procedure is repeated
until the convergence criterion is satisfied.
It should be mentioned that, during the first few
equilibrium iterations, the values of the element axial
nodal forces obtained from the current deformation
using eqns (6) and (29) may be several orders larger
than their convergent values for certain problems.
This may cause di~culty in convergence or even
divergence for a large increment. In [IO] a two-cycle
iteration scheme is introduced to overcome this
difficulty. This scheme was proven to be very effective
by numerous examples studied in [IO]; however, in
the present study, it is found that the accuracy of
convergent solutions obtained by this scheme is not
sufficient for some problems. This difficulty probably
arises due to the fact that the difference between the
values of convergent element axial forces at the first
and second cycles is not small for some problems. In
order to overcome this difficulty an n-cycle iteration
scheme, an extension of the two-cycle iteration
scheme, is proposed in this study and can be
described as follows.
Let fdenote the element axial force corresponding
to the current deformation, h denote the convergent
element axial force of thejth cycle, and& denote the
convergent element axial force of the fth increment.
For the iterations of thejth cycle the element axial
force F,, (eqn (29)) is replaced by

where f, and 4_ , are m x 1 column matrices containing the convergent values of element axial forces 4
andA_, , m is the number of the elements used for the
discretization of the structure, and p, is a prescribed
parameter. If eqn (41) is not satisfied, the iterations
for next cycle are performed. Otherwise, the final
cycle of iterations is carried out until eqn (32) is
satisfied, At the final cycle, the element axial force f
calculated from the current defo~ation
is used in
eqns (29) and (23) to obtain the element axial and
bending forces. The convergent solution of the final
cycle is used as the solution of the corresponding
increment.
6. NUMERICAL STUDIES

Example 1. Cantilever beam with an end moment

This example considered is a cantilever beam sub.
jetted to a concentrated moment at the free end as
shown in Fig. 5. The beam was d&ret&d
by 10
elements. The results shown in Fig. 5 are obtained by

using only three increments. The number of iterations

is about six per increment. As can be seen, the
agreement with analytical solution is quite good. It
should be mentioned that the two-cycle iteration
scheme is used for this example because the element
axial forces are zero for this problem.
This example is extensively studied in the literature
to demonstrate the efficiency of numerical methods
and the large rotation capability of the beam, plate
and shell elements. To the authors knowledge, only
the present authors have achieved bending of the
cantilever beam into a full circle by using only three
increments.
Example 2. Cantilever 4Megree bend with an end Iwd
The bend as illustrated in Fig. 6 is curved in the
horizontal pfane and subjected to a vertical load. The

+=====&=IF
W

F;,==(l-CJJ;_,+CJ

j21,

(39)

E = l.2X10skN/m2
V=O
L = 10.0 m
b = 1.0 m
h = 0.1 m

where Ca f [0,11, is a prescribed parameter; the FL2

required for the evaluation of $ in eqn (18) and Fb
in eqn (23) are replaced by
J$=

fit*

j=l

(I--C&,+C&,,

ja2,

(40)

where Cbe [0, I] is a prescribed parameter.

The equilibrium iterations of the jth cycle are
performed until the Euclidean norm of the unbalanced force vector in eqn (31) is smaller than a
prescribed value, which may be chosen to be larger
than the error tolerance given in eqn (32). Then the
following inequality is checked:

-Analytical
solution
Present analysis
l

12
6
8
10
Displacement (ml
Fig. 5. Cantilever beam with an end moment.
0

Kuo-MO HSIAOet (11.

I2

R = 100. in
u = 0.
E = 1Opsi

c5jgft$;*
69.26

BEAM

l-l-1
CROSS SECllON

I 61.44

E=4.32XlO
(GJ),
-

5
& .6

Ref
*

[ 6 ]

Present

69.26

A,=.500

=4.15x105

(GJ),=1.66X10s

analysis

L=2OO.Oh
A,=.100

(I,),

=.400

(Ix),

=.05

(ly),

=.133

(Iy)2=.05

PL2mJ,

2*o
I 7---1.5

t/

Ref

1 ;0.

1.

2.
3.
4.
LOAD PARAMETER

5.
k =

6.
Pi/El

7.

0.0

1.0

Example 3. Space arch frame

Figure 8 shows the structure load system and the

load displacement curve. In addition to four vertical

(16.4

, 46.3

A (24.7

Fig.

7. Deformed

w,Lx,oJ

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

Fig. 8. Space arch frame.

Fig. 6. Forty-five-degree circular bend with an end force.

bend has an average radius of 100 in. and cross

section area 1 it?.
The bend is idealized using eight equal beam
elements. At each increment, the stiffness matrix
updating is only performed at the first five iterations
of each cycle. Only four increments are used in this
analysis. Three cycles of iteration are used per increment. The average number of iterations per increment is about 12. The results for the end displacements versus applied load are shown in Fig. 6
together with the solutions given by Bathe and
Bolourchi [6] using eight beam elements and 60
equal load increments. Very good agreement between these two solutions is observed. The deformed
configurations of the bend at various load levels are
shown in Fig. 7.

[ 6

loads P, the structure is subjected to two lateral loads

equal to 0.001 P. For all members the major principal
axis of inertia x is normal to the plane of either arch
rib. The symbols GJ, 1, and 1, denote, respectively,
the torsional rigidity, the major and the minor principal moments of inertia, and the subscripts 1 and 2
denote the member groups as noted in the figure.
Each member of the structure is idealized by four
equal elements. The results of the present study
shown in Fig. 8 are obtained by using two increments
with the error tolerance p,,,, = lo-. Three cycles of
iteration are used for both increments and the total
number of iterations used for each increment are four
and five, respectively. The present results are in
excellent agreement with the solutions given in [8]
which are obtained using 17 equal load increments
(transcribed by the authors).
Case A

Case

6 boundary
nodes free in
trondatlonal
movsrnent
6 boundary
nodes restrained
against
tronslotlonol
movsment

, 53.6)

, 60.6

, 35.6)

shapes of a 45-degree circular bend.

-439600
lb/in2
=159000
lb/in2
10.494
iI+
PO.02
inz
-0.02
it?
=0.0331
in

Fig. 9. Geometry of 12-member hexagonal frame.

Corotational

179

procedure for rotations of beam structures

&
1

x ,,w

2-

x,,u

E-3.03X1 0 N/cm*
G=l.O96Xl@
N/cd

DEfTLECllON

Fig. 10. Load-deflection

V (in)

curves for hexagonal frame.

Example 4. Twelve -member hexagonal frame

The hexagonal frame depicted in Fig. 9 is subjected

to a concentrated load at the crown; two boundary
conditions are considered: (a) six boundary nodes are
free in translational movement and (b) six boundary
nodes are restrained against translational movement.
The frame was idealized using 12 (one element per
member) and 36 (three equal elements per member)
beam elements. For both boundary conditions, the
results (not shown) using 12 elements are in close
agreement with the solutions of Meek and Tan [9],
who used a similar element but did not mention the
number of elements used for discretixation.
The results of case (a) using 36 elements are shown
in Fig. 10, together with those reported by Meek and
Tan [9] and Papadrakakis [7]. It is observed that
the present results are in agreement with that of
Papadrakakis, which is in exact agreement with experimental results given by Griggs [33]. The present
results are obtained using five increments; the number
of cycles used is about four per increment, and the

250-

Case B
o
Preset7 t
-

Ref [S]

200-

Fig. 11. Load-deflection

curves for hexagonal frame.

Fig. 12. Geometry of 24-member shallow dome.

total number of iterations used per increment is about

11. The stiffness matrix is updated only at the first
two iterations of each cycle.
The results of case (b) using 36 elements are shown
in Fig. 11. The present results are obtained using six
increments; the number of cycles used per increment
is about four, and the total number of iterations used
per increment is about 13. The dashed curve shown
in Fig. 11 is also obtained by the present study using
16 increments. The stiffness matrix is updated only at
the first two iterations of each cycle. Also shown in
Fig. 11 are the solutions reported by Meek and
Tan [9]. The discrepancies between these two solutions may be explained by suggesting that the number
of elements used in [9] is insufficient.
Example 5. Twenty-four-member
shaped shallow dome

hexagonal

star-

Figure 12 shows the geometry of a 24member

hexagonal star-shaped shallow dome. The supports
of the dome are assumed to be pinned and restrained
against translational motion. The dome is idealized
using 24 (one element per member) and 72 (three
equal elements per member) beam elements. For all
loading conditions, the results (not shown) using 12
elements are in close agreement with the solutions of
Meek and Tan[9] who used a similar element but
did not mention the number of elements used for
discretixation.
The first loading condition considered is that of a
concentrated vertical load at the apex of the dome.
The present results using 72 elements, shown in
Fig. 13, are obtained by using three increments. The
number of iterations for each cycle is also given in
parenthesis beside each point on the graph. The
average number of iterations required for one increment is about eight. The stiffness matrix is only
updated at the Crst two iterations at each cycle. By
keeping the same member cross sectional area but
decreasing the tlexural stiffness in the vertical plane,
the structure is reanalyzed. The graph of the load-

780

Kuo-MO HSMO er al.

2.0

2.5?
.

Present

2.0

(I 2.1, I )
0

I
0

Present

-Ref

Rsf [ 9 ]

[9]

P*V

OK

. Loaded node

Fig.

1.0

2.0
DEFIJXTION

13. Load~efl~tion

3.0
V (cm)

co

curves for con~ntrat~

Ioad.

central

2.0
0

Prsssnt

-Rsf

[S]

1.5 *

a0.

12=2.377cm'
13=0.295cm4

9
s

/
l

Loaded node

l/---j
Of

Fig.

J PO.91 Bcm

1.0,

1.0
2.0
DEFLECTION

14. ~ad~efl~tion

curves
load.

3.0

4.0

5.0

V (cm)

for ~n~trat~

central

2.0

0
-

curves

12=2.377cm4
13=0.295cm4
J =0.918cm4

3.0
4.0
V (cm)

3.0

for unsymmetrical loading.

5.0

deflection curves using 72 elements is shown in

Fig. 14. As can be seen, only three increments are
used. The average number of iterations per increment
is nine.
The second load condition is al1 nodes loaded
symmetrically. The results using 72 elements are
shown in Fig. 15. Four increments are used and the

1.0
2.0
DEFLECTION

Fig. 16. Load-deflection

!wc&ed

Present
Ref [ 9 ]

average number of iterations used per

is eight. For the unsymmetrical loading
shown in Fig. 16, five increments are
the average number of iterations used
increment.

increment
condition
used and
is 10 per

7. CONCLUSIONS

A practical motion process of the three dimensional beam element is presented to remove the
restriction of small rotations between two successive
increments for large displacement and large rotation
analysis of space frames using incremental-iterative
methods.
The nonlinear fo~uiation
is based on the corotational formulation by which the major geometric
nonlinearities were shown to be embodied in the
coordinate transformation when forming the element
assemblage. The transformation of the element coordinate system is assumed to be accomplished by a
~anslation and two successive rigid body rotations:
a transverse rotation followed by an axial rotation.
The element formulation is derived based on the
small deflection beam theory with the inclusion of
the effect of axial force in the element coordinate
system. The element internal nodal forces are calculated using the total defo~ational
nodal rotations.
Two methods, referred to as direct method and
incremental method, are proposed in this paper to
calculate the total deformational rotations.
Despite the fact that the formulation of the beam
element is very simple, highly accurate solutions are
obtained. It is believed that the use of a simple
element combined with the corotational formulation
and the process of element motion proposed in this
paper may represent a valuable engineering tool for
the solution of nonlinear spatial beam problems.
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t. K.

1.0

2.0
DENCTION

Fig. 15. Load-deflection

3.0
V (cm)

4.0

5.0

6.0

curves for symmetrical loading.

Corotational

procedure for rotations of beam structures

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