In-Plane Bending of Curved Circular Tubes

Abstract

A general solution is presented for a thin, curved circular tube under in-plane bending. It includes the solution given by Clark and Reissner as a particular case in which the ratio of the radius of the tube to the radius of its center line is very small. The series expansions satisfy the equilibrium equation for any radius ratio while the compatibility condition is guaranteed by minimizing the complementary energy. The minimization is achieved in the manner of Raileigh-Ritz whereas the evaluation of integrals are facilitated by the use of binomial expansion. Numerical results correlate well with the experimental data. The solution is more rapidly convergent as compared to the existing analytical methods.