Curved beams have found many applications in various fields of engineering such as civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering. Therefore, many researchers have devoted themselves to developing finite element solutions for curved beams. The question of the choice of the proper finite element solution to perform static and dynamic analysis of the structures that involve curved beams was investigated. The investigation was carried out on a lighting column. Two finite element solutions named; straight beam finite element method (SE-method) and curved beam finite element method (CE-method) were studied. The results for natural frequencies, mode shapes, and the deformed configurations obtained from the two approaches were compared. A MATLAB code was written to carry out the static and dynamic finite element analysis of the lighting column.
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