Snapping of a Planar Elastica With Fixed End Slopes

Abstract

In this paper, we study the deformation and stability of a planar elastica. One end of the elastica is clamped and fixed in space. The other end of the elastica is also clamped, but the clamp itself is allowed to slide along a linear track with a slope different from that of the fixed clamp. The elastica deforms after it is subjected to an external pushing force on the moving clamp. It is observed that when the pushing force reaches a critical value, snapping may occur as the elastica jumps from one configuration to another remotely away from the original one. In the theoretical investigation, we calculate the static load-deflection curve for a specified slope difference between the fixed clamp and the moving clamp. To study the stability of the equilibrium configuration, we superpose the equilibrium configuration with a small perturbation and calculate the natural frequencies of the deformed elastica. An experimental setup is designed to measure the load-deflection curve and the natural frequencies of the elastica. The measured load-deflection relation agrees with the theoretical prediction very well. On the other hand, the measured natural frequencies do not agree very well with the theoretical prediction, unless the mass of the moving clamp is taken into account.