ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the possibility to create a 1D-beam model based on moment-curvature relations at different load conditions able to assess not only global limit states but also local ones. In thin walled structures, like mast panels, also local collapse must be checked and finite element analysis of a 2D shell, rather than 1D beam, modeled mast panel is necessary to capture local buckling and related phenomena of such type of structures. Element displacement function can be found in D. Chapelle and K. J. Bathe and Bathe and E. N. Dvorkin, while the numerical convergence criteria are reported in ADINA. It is worth noting that offsets due to differences in thickness of abutting plates have been duly considered by shifting the mid-plane of the shell elements and rigidly linking edge nodes. A mono-dimensional finite element is defined in the following, taking advantage of the results obtained by the more complex 2D shell elements models.
