Design and Analysis of Solid and Thin‐Walled Slender Structures Using Soft Materials Based on Beam Finite Elements

ABSTRACT This study investigates the design and analysis of solid and thin‐walled slender structures made of hyperelastic soft materials using high‐order beam finite elements integrated into the Carrera unified formulation (CUF) framework. The primary aim is to evaluate the load‐bearing capacity and deflection characteristics of these structures through finite element analysis (FEA). Numerical results indicate that the experimental load capacity reached up to 19,000 kN, while FEA simulations reported a capacity of 15,000 kN. Midspan deflection measurements showed experimental values peaking at 5000 mm, compared to 4200 mm in FEA results. The average ratio of experimental to numerical results ( M test / M FEA ) across various specimens was 0.943 with a standard deviation of 0.11, suggesting a strong agreement between experimental and numerical analyses. These findings validate the effectiveness of high‐order beam finite elements for modeling the behavior of slender soft material structures, thus contributing to advancements in structural engineering.