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On this page we conduct numerical studies of the cantilever beam, a common numerical benchmark in elastostatics.

Exact solution

Consider a beam od dimensions $L \times D$ with the origin of the coordinate system at $(x,y) = (0,D/2)$. The left end of the beam is fixed and the right end of the beam is loaded with a vertical traction: \begin{equation} t_y(y) = \frac{P}{2I}\left(\frac{D^2}{4}-y^2\right). \end{equation} The exact solution of this problem is available in (Timoshenko and Goodier, 1977) and can be summarized as follows. The displacements in $x$- and $y-$ direction are given by \begin{align*} u_x &= -\frac{P}{6EI}\left(\left(6L-3x\right)x + \left(2+\nu\right)\left(y^2-\frac{D^2}{4}\right)\right) \\ u_y &= \frac{P}{6EI}\left(3\nu y^2(L-x) + (4+5\nu)\frac{D^2 x}{4} + (3L-x)x^2\right) \end{align*} where $E$ is Youngs modulus, $\nu$ is the Poisson ratio and $I$ is the moment of inertia for a beam with rectangular cross section and unit thickness: \[ I = \frac{D^3}{12}. \]

Numerical solution

For the numerical solution we first choose the following parameters:

• Loading: $P = -1000$ N
• Young's modulus: $E = 3 \times 10^7$ N/m²
• Poisson's ratio: $\nu = 0.3$
• Height of the beam: $D = 12$ m
• Length of the beam: $L = 48$ m

The unloaded beam is discretized with $40 \times 10$ regular nodes. Since the left end of the beam at $x = 0$ is fixed, the displacement boundary conditions are prescribed from the known analytical formulae : \begin{equation} u_x(0,y) = -\frac{P}{6EI}(2+\nu)\left(y^2 - \frac{D^2}{4}\right); \qquad u_y(0,y) = \frac{P}{2EI}(\nu L y^2) \end{equation}

Finite elements