Buckling failure of 310 stainless steel tubes with different diameter-to-thickness ratios under cyclic bending

In this paper, experimental and theoretical investigations on the response and collapse of 310 stainless steel tubes with different diameter-to-thickness ratios subjected to cyclic bending are discussed. The tube-bending device and curvature-ovalization measurement apparatus were used to conduct the experiment. The endochronic theory combined with the principle of virtual work and finite element software, ANSYS, were used to simulate the moment-curvature and ovalization-curvature relationships. It is shown that although the two methods lead to good simulation of the moment-curvature relationship, the endochronic theory combined with the principle of virtual work has the better simulation of the ovalization-curvature response when compared with experimental data and the simulation by ANSYS. In addition, the theoretical formulations proposed by Kyriakides and Shaw (1987) and Lee et al. (2001) were used to simulate the controlled curvature-number of cycles to produce buckling relationship. It is shown that the theoretical formulations effectively simulate the experimental data.