2 Springs and bars

Consider a bar (or spring) element with two nodes, two degrees of freedom, cor-responding to two
axial displacements u(1e), u2(e),1 as illustrated in figure 2.1. We suppose an element of length L,
constant cross-section with area A, and modulus of elasticity E. The element supports axial forces only.

The deformation in the bar is obtained as

The axial resultant force is obtained by integration of stresses across the thickness direction as

Taking into account the static equilibrium of the axial forces R1(e) and R2(e), as

we can write the equations in the form (taking k(e) = EAL )

where K(e) is the sti ness matrix of the bar (spring) element, a(e) is the dis-placement vector, and q(e)
represents the vector of nodal forces. If the element undergoes the action of distributed forces, it is
necessary to transform those forces into nodal forces, by