A two-dimensional co-rotational Timoshenko beam element with XFEM formulation

Pin connections and plastic hinges produce non-smooth displacement fields in beam structures. By using an appropriate extended finite element method (XFEM), non-smooth solutions can be obtained by regular coarse meshes, which do not necessarily conform to pins or plastic hinges. In this paper, a two-dimensional co-rotational beam element with XFEM formulation to simulate pin connections and plastic hinges is presented. Enrichments for the rotation and the deflection approximations are embedded in a co-rotational frame to capture the non-smoothness in both small and large deformations. Numerical examples on pin connections and plastic hinges demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the present formulation.