Effect of axial restraint in composite bars under nonlinear inelastic uniform torsion by BEM

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of axial restraint in the elastic–plastic uniform torsion analysis of cylindrical bars taking into account the effect of geometric nonlinearity is presented employing the boundary element method. The bar is axially elastically supported at the centroids of its end cross sections, treating the cases of free axial boundary conditions (vanishing axial force), restrained axial shortening or given axial force as special ones. The cross section of the bar is an arbitrary doubly symmetric composite one, consisting of materials in contact, each of which can surround a finite number of inclusions, while the case of a homogeneous cross section is treated as a special one. The stress–strain relationships for the materials are assumed to be elastic–plastic-strain hardening. The incremental torque–rotation relationship is computed based on the finite displacement (finite rotation) theory, that is the transverse displacement components are expressed so as to be valid for large rotations and the longitudinal normal strain includes the second-order geometrically nonlinear term, often described as the “Wagner strain”. The proposed formulation does not stand on the assumption of a thin-walled structure and therefore the cross section’s torsional rigidity is evaluated exactly without using the so-called Saint-Venant’s torsional constant. The torsional rigidity of the cross section is evaluated directly employing the primary warping function of the cross section depending on both its shape and the progress of the plastic region. A boundary value problem with respect to the aforementioned function is formulated and solved employing a BEM approach. The developed procedure retains most of the advantages of a BEM solution over a pure domain discretization method, although it requires domain discretization, which is used only to evaluate integrals. The significant increase of the torsional rigidity of the bar and the arising axial force due to the axial restraint are concluded.