Convergence of consistently derived Timoshenko beam finite elements

Abstract The accuracy and convergence properties of two new Timoshenko beam finite elements are compared to those now widely used. Both of the new elements are consistently derived from a variational principle written in terms of the transverse beam deflection and normal rotation. The deflection is expanded as a cubic and the rotation as a quadratic in the axial co‐ordinate of the beam, giving rise to a seven degrees of freedom element. The first element, called TIM7, includes all the degrees of freedom while the second, called TIM4, reduces this number to four through a constraint introduced by Egle. Both elements display monotonic covergence for beam natural frequencies as a function of the number of degrees of freedom and both will give the analyst some measure of confidence in response calculations for beams excited at high frequencies.