On Effects of Large-Deflected Beam Analysis by Iterative Transfer Matrix Approach

A small-deflected beam can be easily solved by assuming a linear system. But a large-deflected beam can not be solved by superposition of the displacements, because the system is nonlinear. The solutions for the large-deflection problems can not be obtained directly from elementary beam theory for linearized systems since the basic assumptions are no longer valid. Specifically, elementary theory neglects the square of the first derivative in the beam curvature formula and provides no correction for the shortening of the moment-arm cause by transverse deflection. These two effects must be considered to analyze the large deflection. Through the correction of deflected geometry and internal axial force, the proposed new approach is developed from the linearized beam theory. The solutions from the proposed approach are compared with exact solutions.