Partial interaction analysis of composite beams by means of the finite difference method, the finite element method, the direct stiffness method and the analytical solution: a comparative study

Abstract This paper presents a comparison among available structural analysis formulations for composite beams with partial shear interaction. In the comparison all material are assumed to behave in a linear-elastic fashion. The formulations considered are the finite difference method, the finite element method, the direct stiffness method and the exact analytical model. The former two require a spatial discretisation to be specified along the beam length, while the latter two do not require any discretisation. Using the solution of the exact analytical model as a reference the accuracy of the three formulations has been tested for the cases of a simply supported beam and of a propped cantilever subjected to a uniformly distributed load. The comparison is carried out at various level of shear connection stiffness.