Large-deformation analysis of flexible beams

Presented here are numerical verifications of a geometrically-exact curved beam model which fully accounts for large rotations, large displacements, initial curvatures and extensionality. A multiple shooting method is used to solve the two-point boundary-value problem of flexible beams undergoing large elastic rotations and displacements in three-dimensional space. Numerically exact large static deformations of eight beams subjected to different loading and/or boundary conditions are obtained. These solutions can be used to verify the performance of general finiteelement codes in analyzing large structural deformations