Large Deflections in a Flexible Beam Subjected to Bending Moment.

Abstract

In spring steels and multipurpose plastics, a fairly large tendency towords deflection behavior is observed without exceeding the elastic limit of materials. This report describes the nonlinear large-deflection problem of a simply supported flexible beam subjected to moment at one end. Several analytical solutions are presented for investigating prerequisite quantities such as deflection, arc length, curvature and bending stress. Moreover, a large flexural bending test is carried out on a thin PVC plate in order to confirm the validity of the proposed large-deflection theory. The degree of agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical assessments is quite satisfactory.