Variable kinematic beam elements for electro-mechanical analysis

This paper proposes a rened electro-mechanical beam formulation. Lagrange-type polynomials are used to interpolate the unknowns over the beam cross section. Three- (L3), four- (L4), and nine-point (L9) polynomials are considered which lead to linear, bi-linear, and quadratic displacement eld approximations over the beam cross-section. Finite elements are obtained by employing the principle of virtual displacements in conjunction with the Carrera Unied Formulation (CUF). The nite element matrices and vectors are expressed in terms of fundamental nuclei whose forms do not depend on the assumptions made. Additional rened beam models are implemented by introducing further discretizations, over the beam cross-section. Some assessments from bibliography have been solved in order to validate the electro-mechanical formulation. The investigations conducted show that the present formulation is able to detect the electro-mechanical interaction.