Object Oriented Formulation of the 3D Large Deformation Beam Element for Crash Applications

This paper presents a new Object Oriented Formulation of the FE algorithm that encompasses traditional FE, Super Element, experimental data and rigid body mechanics in a single calculation environment. The new formulation is implemented in a software for the dynamic crash simulation of an arbitrary 3D frame structure discretized into Super Elements and subjected to large dynamic crash loading. The paper presents basics of the general algorithm and element formulation. The theoretical portion of this paper is followed by a discussion of benchmark tests and results of the application to real world structures.