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Beam General Section Types

A beam element is characterized by its cross section. If the cross section is rectangular (including square) or elliptical (including circular) the *BEAM SECTION card can be used. For all other section types the *BEAM GENERAL SECTION card has to be used. In that case, the beam element is internally expanded into a rectangular cross section (C3D20R-type element) and the actual section of the beam is simulated by an appropriate integration point scheme. A section type is characterized by a finite number of parameters, which must be entered immediately underneath the *BEAM GENERAL SECTION card. A new section type can be added by changing the following routines:

- beamgeneralsections.f (here, the one-letter abbreviation for the section has to be added. For instance, the pipe section is characterized by 'P'. Furthermore, the programmer must define the number of parameters needed to characterize the section).
- beamintscheme.f (here, the integration point scheme has to be defined)
- beamextscheme.f (here, the extrapolation of the integration point variables such as stresses or strains to the nodes of the expanded C3D20R element).

Right now, the following section types are available:

Subsections

- Pipe

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