Development of new spatially curved frame finite element for crash analysis part 1: Formulation and validation

This paper deals with the development of a new space curved frame finite element to be used for crash analysis (non-linear). The formulation has been validated for problems of large deflection and rotation, and for problems involving initially curved members. Based on the validation performed, it is expected that crash problems may be modeled using a single element per member thus retaining computational efficiency while performing an accurate analysis.The support of this work by the FAA, under a grant to the Center of Excellence for Computational Modeling