Bending of Curved Thin Tubes

Abstract

Abstract The stress distribution in curved tubes under the action of applied couples acting either in the plane of curvature of the tube or perpendicularly to that plane greatly differs from the conventional beam distribution, especially in the case of tubes with thin walls and a great curvature of the center line. For that reason, curved tubes with thin walls are much more flexible under applied couples than the corresponding straight tubes. The stress distribution in curved tubes, and its influence on the rigidity, are examined by the author in the case when the ratio of the radius of the center line to the radius of the tube is great. It is also shown that, when this ratio is small, the results relative to rigidity remain fairly accurate, while the results relative to stress distribution are incorrect and require a more complete analysis.