A modern and compact way to formulate classical and advanced beam theories

This chapter presents a unified formulation for refined beam theories. This work is embedded in the framework of the Carrera unified formulation (CUF) for higher-order beam [1] and plate/shell [2] models. The CUF is hierarchical, that is, the order of the formulation is considered as a free parameter of the analysis. The hierarchical features of CUF permit us to deal with refined beam theories in a unified manner with no need of ad hoc formulations. Moreover, arbitrary cross-section geometries can be analyzed by means of the present beam modeling.