Buckling and geometrically nonlinear analysis of frames using one element/member

The commonly used Hermite cubic element represents the solution for the linear differential equilibrium equation of a straight beam under the Bernoulli hypothesis. However, this element grossly over-estimates the buckling load of a strut when only a single element is used to model a member. This paper presents a simple higher-order element capable of predicting the buckling load of a strut with various boundary conditions by using only a single element for each member. It is found that a direct introduction of a displacement degree of freedom to the mid-length of the cubic element will improve significantly its performance in a nonlinear analysis. The computational efficiency and formulation of this new element are very similar to those for the cubic element in spite of their discrepancies in accuracy.