Abstract: Rational FEM is used in Timoshenko beam problems. Akind of rational Timoshenko beam element is proposed, to avoid shear locking. In deriving thegoverning equations, some basic analytic solutions ofTimoshenko beam problems are used to approximate the inner field of the element. Thismethod is different from Lagrange interpolation used in the conventional FEM. The rationalTimoshenko beam element can avoid shear locking without a reducedintegration. Numerical results show that the element's precision is very high.It is shown that the rational FEM has a very wide application.