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Beam — LS-DYNA Support

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If you want to input A, Iss, etc. directly, you must use a resultant
beam formulation, i.e., ELFORM=2. With such a formulation,
stresses are not calculated because the shape of the cross-
section is unknown. You'll only get forces and moments.
ELFORM=2 is compatible with only a few material types. See the
material table at the beginning of the *MAT section of the Users
Manual.

ELFORM=1 is an integrated beam formulation. With an

integrated formulation, the shape of the cross-section is defined
in the input and so stresses can be computed at the beam
integration points. The parameter CST on Card 1 of
*SECTION_BEAM indicates whether the section is circular or
rectangular. You must give cross-section dimensions on Card 2
of *SECTION_BEAM.

For circular sections, you give outside and inside diameters at

the two ends. (For a solid circular section, the inside diameter is
zero.) For solid rectangular sections, you give the cross-section
width and breadth at the two ends.

For hollow rectangular tubes, it's a bit trickier as you must also
use *INTEGRATION_BEAM which is referenced by setting
QR/IRID in *SECTION_BEAM to -IRID, where IRID is given in

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Beam — LS-DYNA Support about:reader?url=https://www.dynasupport.com/howtos/element/beam

*INTEGRATION_BEAM. In *INTEGRATION_BEAM, you can

leave NIP and RA blank and set ICST to 5. On Card 2 of
*INTEGRATION_BEAM, give the 4 values W, TF, D, and TW
which are shown in the figure in the Users Manual. If QR/IRID in
*SECTION_BEAM is negative, it follows that
*INTEGRATION_BEAM defines the location of the integration
points. If QR/IRID is positive and CST is zero (rectangular
section), refer to the Figure 5.3 on p. 5.11 of the 2006 Theory
Manual. If the integration rule is 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 Gaussian, the
locations of the integration points shown in Figure 5.3 are in
accordance with the columns labeled as 2 point, 3 point, and 4
point, resp., in the table under *SECTION_SHELL in the Users
Manual. Integration points for a circular cross-section are
positioned sequentially in the circumferential direction of the
cross-section, all at the same distance from the cross-section
center. For example, for 3x3 Gauss quadrature, the nine
integration points in the cross-section are 40 degrees apart with
the first integration point on a ray 20 degrees off the local s-axis
(toward the t-axis). The radial position of the integration points for
a solid circular cross section is at r = 0.707 * the outside radius.

You can get axial strain at beam integration points by setting

BEAMIP (*DATABASE_EXTENT_BINARY) to the number of
beam integration points in your LS-DYNA input deck. Then, after
running the model, read D3PLOT into LS-PrePost and click
History > Int.Pt. > Etype: Beams > (click on any beam element) >
Axial Strain > Plot.

Also, plastic strain at beam integration points is written to elout

(see *DATABASE_HISTORY_BEAM and *DATABASE_ELOUT).

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