This document is part of the notes written by Terje Haukaas and posted at www.inrisk.ubc.ca.

The notes are revised without notice and they are provided as is without warranty of any kind. You are encouraged to submit comments, suggestions, and questions to terje@civil.ubc.ca. It is unnecessary to print these notes because they will remain available online.

Work and Energy Expressions

To utilize the virtual work and variational principles it is necessary to have expressions for virtual work and energy. Therefore, this document provides such expressions for a variety of situations. Consistent with the notation in other documents, H denotes potential energy of external load, U denotes potential strain energy in elastic members, K denotes kinetic energy, P denotes total potential energy, Wext denotes virtual work associated with external loads, and Wint denotes virtual work associated with internal elastic deformation.

Virtual Work
3D Elasticity

Expressions for Wint and Wext are sought for the principle of virtual displacements and the principle of virtual forces. For the principle of virtual displacements Wint of an elastic material particle is:

Terje Haukaas

University of British Columbia

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! Wint = % " # !$ dV
V

(1)

For the principle of virtual forces it is:

! Wint = % !" # $ dV
V

(2)

Beam Bending

Substitution of material law =E and kinematics =wz into Eq. (1) and integration over the cross-section, thus defining I, yields:

! Wint = # EI " w ''" ! w '' dx

0

(3)

Beam Loading Wext for the principle of virtual displacements is force times virtual displacement:

! Wext = " qz ! w dx
0

(4)

Wext is, when inertia is included according to dAlemberts principle:

!! )! w dx ! Wext = $ ( qz " m # w
0

(5)

Load on 3D

The external virtual work associated with the forces p along the displacement fields ! on the boundary is: u

! d # ! Wext = $ p " ! u
#

(6)

Strain Energy
Strain energy in an elastic body is a form of potential energy, and potential energy quantifies the ability of a system to carry out work.

Elastic Spring
Consider a linear spring with stiffness k, force F, and elongation . The force in the spring is k. As the spring is slowly extended, the work is the area under the load- displacement curve, identified as a shaded triangle in Figure 1, which is stored as elastic potential energy:
U = " F d ! = " (k # !)d ! =
0 0 ! !

1 # k # ! 2 2

(7)

Work and Energy Expressions

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The complementary strain energy is expressed in terms of force instead of displacement, identified as the non-shaded triangle in Figure 1:
1 1 # F& U = " ! dF = " % ( dF = ) ) F 2 $ ' k 2 k 0 0
F F

(8)

Force

F = k!"
k 1

Displacement

!
Figure 1: Strain energy.

Rotational Spring

The strain energy in a rotational spring is:

U= 1 ! k ! " 2 2

(9)

Beam Bending
Analogous to the linear F- relationship in Figure 1 for the derivation of the strain energy for a spring in Eq. (7), the linear moment-curve relationship

M = EI ! w ''

(10)

is considered here. It is noted that kinematics, material law, and section integration is included in this relationship. Integration with respect to curvature yields:
w ''

U=

" EI ! w '' dw '' = 2 ! EI ! (w '')

0

(11)

As a result, the total strain energy for a beam with length L is:
1 U = " ! EI ! (w '')2 2 0
L

(12)

From Euler-Bernoulli beam theory it is understood that w is an approximation expression for the curvature. Eq. (11) holds valid for other curvature expressions as

Work and Energy Expressions

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University of British Columbia

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well, with w replaced by the alternative curvature expression. The expression for the complementary strain energy is obtained by integration along the moment axis:
U = ! w '' dM =
0 M M

! EI dM = 2 " EI " M
0

1 1

(13)

Matrix Formulation
In matrix structural analysis the force-displacement relationship is written:

F = Ku

(14)

where F is the load vector, K is the stiffness matrix, and u is the vector of degrees of freedom. Caution must be exercised to avoid confusing the stiffness-related quantities k and K with the symbol K for kinetic energy in the following. The strain energy expressed in this context is:
U= 1 T u Ku 2

(15)

Potential Energy in Loads

The archetypical expression for potential energy is H=P, where the minus sign implies that potential energy is released when the load P acts along the displacement . Thus, the following expressions all have a minus sign, which is removed if the force multiplied by displacement actually implies an accumulation of potential energy.

Beam Loading
The potential energy of external load on a beam is:
H = ! # qz " w dx
0 L

(16)

Matrix Formulation

The potential energy associated with the load vector, F, in matrix structural analysis is:

H = ! FT u

(17)

Axial Force on Rigid Column

This type of element is employed in stick models. Suppose a rigid column is subjected to a conservative axial force, P, while the element rotates by . By conservative it is meant that the force acts in the same direction throughout the deformation. The potential energy associated with the axial force is

H = ! P " # vert

(18)

Work and Energy Expressions

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University of British Columbia

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where vert is the vertical displacement at the top of the column, as shown in Figure 2. With reference to the same figure, the vertical displacement expressed in terms of the element rotation is

! vert = L " L # cos($ )

(19)

In ordinary structural analysis, cos() would be considered equal to unity because is small. Here, however, consider the series expansion of cos():

cos(! ) = 1 "

!2 !4 !6 + " + ! 2 4! 6!

(20)

The terms decrease in value as they increase in order. In the linearized second- order theory the high-order terms are neglected and

!2 cos(! ) " 1 # 2
% % $2 (( H = ! P " # vert = ! P " ( L ! L " cos($ )) = ! P " ' L ! L " ' 1 ! * * 2 )) & &

(21)

As a result, the potential energy from the axial force is:

$2 = !P " L " 2

(22)

! P k L L.cos(!) !

Figure 2: Rigid column subjected to axial force.

Axial Force on Beam Element

The potential energy associated with shortening du of an infinitesimally short beam element subjected to axial load is
H = ! P " du

(23)

The shortening du when the element displaces laterally and thus rotates by an amount is, similar to Figure 2:
Work and Energy Expressions

du = dx ! dx " cos(# )

(24)
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University of British Columbia

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Using the same approximation of cos() as in Eqs. (20) and (21), and substituting =dw/dx, yields

1 " dw % du = ! $ ' dx 2 # dx &

(25)

Consequently, the potential energy is

1 H = ! " P du = ! P # " # (w ')2 dx 2 0 0
L L

(26)

Axial Force on Rigid Column with Geometrical Imperfection

Reconsider the rigid column in Figure 2 and the potential energy in Eq. (22). One approach to include geometrical imperfection is to include an initial deformation 0:

H = ! P " # vert

2 $ ! $o ) ( = !P " L "

(27)

Axial Force on Rigid Column with Load Eccentricity

To include load eccentricity for the rigid column in Figure 2 and the potential energy in Eq. (22), one approach is to include a lateral force at the top:

H = ! P " # vert ! F " # = ! P " L "

$2 ! F " L " $ 2

(28)

Kinetic Energy

By denoting by v the velocity, the kinetic energy is generically written

K= 1 ! m ! v 2 2 1 ! 2 !m!w 2

(29)

For a beam element it is written

K=

(30)

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