New publication in Acta Mechanica

24 August 2026

We are happy to announce the publication of the article "A variationally consistent beam-to-beam point coupling formulation for geometrically exact beam theories" in the journal Acta Mechanica.


In this paper, we present a versatile and formulation-independent approach for coupling beam cross-sections within the framework of geometrically exact beam theory. The proposed coupling conditions are formulated solely in terms of cross-section kinematics, namely centroid positions and orientations, making the approach applicable to beams based on different formulations, interpolation schemes, and rotation parametrizations. Suitable generalized deformation measures enable the consistent treatment of general coupling configurations, including relative rotations and non-coincident cross-section centroids.

 

The coupling contributions are derived in a variationally consistent manner and can be incorporated directly into existing beam finite element formulations using either Lagrange multipliers or penalty regularization. Numerical examples demonstrate the robustness and flexibility of the approach, including the coupling of beams with different formulations and discretizations at arbitrary positions within beam elements.


Steinbrecher, I., Hagmeyer, N., Meier, C., and Popp, A., 2026,
"A variationally consistent beam-to-beam point coupling formulation for geometrically exact beam theories", Acta Mechanica.

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