Out of plane vibrations of thin-walled curved beams considering shear flexibility

In this paper a simple finite element is proposed for analyzing out of plane vibration of thin walled curved beams, with both open and closed sections, considering shear flexibility. The present element is obtained from a variational formulation governing the dynamics of a three-dimensional elastic body in which the stress tensor as well as the displacements are variationally independent. The element has two nodes with four degrees of freedom in each. Numerical examples for the first six frequencies are performed in order to assess the accuracy of the finite element formulation and to show the influence of the shear flexibility on the dynamics of the member.