THEORETICAL THREE-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF FINITE DEFORMATION OF A CLOSED CIRCULAR CYLINDRICAL SHELL SUBJECTED TO PURE BENDING

Abstract

This paper is concerned with a theoretical three-dimensional analysis of finite defomation of a closed circular cylindrical shell subjected to pure bending. A perturbation approach is employed to solve the nonlinear, equilibrium equations of the deformed state in terms of Kirchhoff's stresses. In this approach the stress and displacement components are expanded into power series of a small parameter which represents the curvature change in the longitudinal direction. The flexure buckling load is evaluted and compared with the result from shell theory. The possibility of plastic yielding is also investigated. It is concluded that the elastic buckling can occur for such a, thin shell as with radius-to-thickness ratio beyond 500, for which thin shell theory may be useful to predict the buckling load.