On the modeling of composite beam cross-sections

This paper reviews on the modeling of composite beam cross-sections. Theoretical models are available for simple composite beam cross-sections. But computational technique, such as finite element analysis (FEA), is considered for complex composite beam cross-sections. It is found from the literature survey that variational asymptotic beam sectional analysis (VABS) and boundary element method (BEM) are very popular and computationally efficient models for composite beam cross-sectional analysis. The available theoretical and computational tools for the modeling of composite beam cross-sections are presented in this paper. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.