What's New

This page describes recent changes in Abaqus elements.

R2022x GA

Meshed General Beam Section with Full Stiffness Coupling

The meshed general beam section definition for element types B31 and B32 in Abaqus/Standard is enhanced by an option that enables full coupling between the six beam section strains and the six beam section forces and moments.
To set up the full coupling behavior, you define the associated 21 values of the symmetric beam section stiffness matrix. Instead of defining these values manually, you can compute them in Abaqus/Standard by first analyzing two-dimensional meshes of the associated cross-section geometries with 3-DOF warping elements and proper material assignments.

For example, for a wind turbine rotor blade, you can define and analyze a two-dimensional cross-section mesh at the middle of every beam element. Each analysis generates a jobname.bsp file that contains the stiffness and mass property definitions of the associated meshed general beam section with full coupling, using the new options *SECTION STIFFNESS for the stiffness and *SECTION INERTIA for the mass properties. The beam model for the rotor blade then references these files.

Benefits: You can now characterize the elastic response of composite beams more accurately; for example, when modeling wind turbine or helicopter rotor blades.
For more information, see Using a General Beam Section to Define the Section Behavior