A study of curved beam element formulations for arch and ring models is presented in this paper. Flexural, axial and shear deformation effect is all taken into account as derivations of the beam element stiffness matrices. They contain the coupled influences of shear and membrane locking effects. At the end of this paper, using numerical and analytical responses to the structural problems found in literature, the formulation efficiency verifies. So, the best numerical models are found and the displacements and resultant forces are obtained for the thin and thick curved structural systems.
arches; rings; circular finite element; stiffness matrix
