Geometric Nonlinearity

[evxjr]

Is there an element that can consider the geometric nonlinear effects of beams at high deflections? In particular I want to know if catenary action is forming.
I would have thought using a fibre section element could do this, but I'm not sure from my results.

Thanks for your help.

[vesna]

You can account for nonlinear geometry by assigning to your elements corotational transformation: http://opensees.berkeley.edu/wiki/index ... sformation. If you also want to capture P-small delta you need to divide your beam into multiple elements. To be able to trace deformations of the beam you need to have nodes at locations that you want to monitor.