Displacements in a Wide Curved Bar Subjected to Pure Elastic-Plastic Bending

Abstract Equations have been obtained for the displacements and strains within a wide curved bar made of a perfectly plastic, incompressible material subjected to a pure bending moment which is sufficiently large to cause elastic-plastic stresses. It is found that whenever the applied load is within 95 per cent of the fully plastic bending moment, displacements and strains in the elastic-plastic problem are of the order of magnitude of the corresponding elastic case. It is also found that when the bending moment reaches approximately 65 per cent of the fully plastic bending moment, the change in material thickness reaches a maximum. It decreases to zero when the bar becomes completely plastic.