ELASTIC-PLASTIC FIBER BEAM-COLUMN ELEMENT AND ITS PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS

The flexibility-based elastic-plastic fiber beam-column element, which is integrated along the element axis, can simulate the complex bi-hysteresis curve of section and the continuous changing of section stiffness along the element axis. Due to large time consumption, this complex element model has not been widely used since it was introduced. A parametric analysis of fiber beam-column element is carried out in this paper. It is found that the time consumption can be properly reduced and the analysis precision is ensured by controlling the number of element slices and fibers of section. Thus, the element is made applicable in large-scale structures.