Element stiffness equation is very important in structural analysis, and directly influences the accuracy of the results. At present, derivation method of element stiffness equation is relatively mature under ambient temperature, and the elastic phrase of material stress-strain curve is generally adopted as physical equation in derivation. However, the material stress-strain relationship is very complicated at elevated temperature, and its form is not unique, which brings great difficulty to the derivation of element stiffness equation. Referring to the derivation method of element stiffness equation at ambient temperature, by using the continuous function of stress-strain-temperature at elevated temperature, and based on the principle of virtual work, the stiffness equation of space beam element and the formulas of stiffness matrix are derived in this paper, which provide basis for finite element analysis on structures at elevated temperature.
