Wrinkling of tubes in bending from finite strain three-dimensional continuum theory

The problem of a tube under pure bending is first solved as a generalised plane strain problem. This then provides the prebifurcation solution, which is uniform along the length of the tube. The onset of wrinkling is then predicted by introducing buckling modes involving a sinusoidal variation of the displacements along the length of the tube. Both the prebuckling analysis and the bifurcation check require only a two-dimensional finite element discretisation of the cross-section with special elements. The formulation does not rely on any of the approximations of a shell theory, or small strains. The same elements can be used for pure bending and local buckling a prismatic beam of arbitrary cross-section. Here the flow theory of plasticity with isotropic hardening is used for the prebuckling solution, but the bifurcation check is based on the incremental moduli of a finite strain deformation theory of plasticity.For tubes under pure bending, the results for limit point collapse (due to ovalisation) and bifurcation buckling (wrinkling) are compared to existing analysis and test results, to see whether removing the approximations of a shell theory and small strains (used in the existing analyses) leads to a better prediction of the experimental results. The small strain analysis results depend on whether the true or nominal stress–strain curve is used. By comparing small and finite strain analysis results it is found that the small strain approximation is good if one uses (a) the nominal stress–strain curve in compression to predict bifurcation buckling (wrinkling), and (b) the true stress–strain curve to calculate the limit point collapse curvature.In regard to the shell theory approximations, it is found that the three-dimensional continuum theory predicts slightly shorter critical wrinkling wavelengths, especially for lower diameter-to-wall-thickness (D/t) ratios. However this difference is not sufficient to account for the significantly lower wavelengths observed in the tests.