New Warping Function for Thin-Walled Beams. II: Finite Element Method and Applications

In the companion paper, using more general assumptions concerning the warping, the theory for thin-walled beams with arbitrary open or closed cross section is developed. In this paper, on the basis of the new warping function, the finite element model is presented. An updated Lagrangian formulation is used to give a linear and geometric stiffness matrix. To test the accuracy of the theory as well as the performance of the associated finite element, some numerical examples are given.