Kinematic Displacement Theory of Planar Structures

Abstract

This paper presents a new curvature based kinematic displacement theory and a numerical method to calculate the planar displacement of structures from a geometrical viewpoint. The theory provides an opportunity to satisfy the kinematic equilibrium of a planar structure using a progressive numerical approach, in which the cross sections are assumed to remain plane, and the deflection curve was evaluated geometrically using the curvature values despite being solved using differential equations. The deflection curve is parameterized with the arc-length, and was taken as an assembly of the chains of circular arcs. Fast and accurate solutions of most complex deflections can be obtained with few inputs.