Effects on Mechanical Behavior of the Flexible Tube for Automobile

Abstract

Flexible tubes are commonly used in automobile and piping systems to absorb expansion and contraction in order to reduce stress. Unlike to other piping components, flexible tubes consist of a thin walled shell of revolution with a corrugated meridian, in order to provide the flexibility needed to absorb mechanical movements. It is very complicated to analyze the behavior of flexible tubes because of its complex figure. Some fundamental behavior of the flexible tube for automobile is reported with analysis method. Obtained results are as follows; (1) The von-Mises stress is increased with increase of deflection at the flexible tube end and the linearity of stress variation depends on length of the flexible tube. (2) The number of cycles to failure is decreased with increase of deflection at the flexible tube end.