How small should be an element of a member

1. 

   P M G Bashir Asdaque @ 12:11 am on 23 Jan 2017 — Edited @ 10:43 pm on 03 Nov 2021

   Hi all,

   Wishing you a good day.

   Order of the cross-section should be small compared to that of length in case of VABS-GEBT. Now, is this valid for 'complete length' of a beam or the 'length of an element' of a member while solving through FEM?

   Thanks,

   PMG

2. 

   Wenbin Yu @ 3:02 am on 23 Jan 2017 — Edited @ 3:02 am on 23 Jan 2017

   First, the smallest is an engineering judgement. From a practical point of view, you decide whether you want to model it as a beam, then MSG/VABS will deliver you the best beam model. Regarding whether one should use beam length or element length. I will suggest to use beam length as a guideline. Because it is the beam length which governs the fundamental modes of deformation are beam-like. Wenbin ---- Emailed forum response from wenbinyu@purdue.edu