Abstract
An efficient nonlinear finite element model based on a higher-order beam theory is developed for accurately predicting the response of two layered composite beams with partial shear interaction. This is achieved by taking a third order variation of the longitudinal displacement over the beam depth for the two layers separately. The deformable shear connectors joining the two different material layers are modelled as distributed shear springs along the beam length at their interface. In order to capture the geometric nonlinear effects of the beam, the Green-Lagrange strain vector is used to develop the one dimensional finite element model. The nonlinear governing equations are solved by an incremental-iterative technique following the Newton-Raphson method. To assess the performance of the proposed model, the results predicted by the model are compared with published results as well as numerical results produced by using a detailed two dimensional finite element modelling of the composite beams.