Chirality in the Torsion of Cylinders with Trigonal Symmetry

Solutions are obtained for a class of torsion problems for cylinders of a material with trigonal material symmetry. In particular, the solutions for elliptical, circular and equilateral triangular cross-sections are presented. These solutions show that the stress distributions are non-chiral and the same as they would be if the material were isotropic; however the in-plane displacements are chiral and different from the isotropic case. The results show that there will be transverse, in-plane stress interactions between the layers of a composite cylinder composed of concentric cylinders of different trigonal materials in torsional loading. Such composite cylinders are structural designs used by nature and by man. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.