Simulation of beam plastic forming with variable bending moments

A versatile generic elastic/plastic moment/curvature equation is used to simulate beam deflections. Solutions are obtained numerically and used to investigate whether forming equations based on the assumption of pure bending can be extended in a rational way to more complicated loadings. It is concluded that the answer is affirmative, with only knowledge of the elastic/plastic behavior associated with pure bending and the elastic behavior associated with the actual loading being needed to make the extension.