Time-dependent analysis of composite beams with partial shear interaction: a comparative study using available modelling techniques

Introduction The aim of this paper is to compare the performance of available displacement-based numerical formulations for the long-term analysis of composite beams with partial shear interaction. In particular, the finite difference method, the finite element method, the direct stiffness method and the exact analytical model have been considered. Using the former two numerical formulations a time analysis requires both a spatial discretisation and a time discretisation to be specified while the latter two modelling techniques need only the time discretisation to be implemented. These comparisons have been carried out adopting the exact analytical model as a benchmark reference with the objective of establishing the minimum spatial discretisations required to keep the error within an acceptable tolerance. For this purpose, simply supported beams, propped cantilevers and fixed ended beams have been analysed.