Snap-Through Phenomenon and Self-Contact of Spatial Elastica Subjected to Mid-Torque

Abstract

This paper presents the snap-through phenomenon and effect of self-contact of the spatial elastica subjected to mid-length torque. One end of the elastica is clamped while the other end is placed in a sleeve joint. The total arc-length of the elastica can be varied by sliding the end through the sleeve joint. At a certain value of total arc-length, the sleeve joint is clamped and an external torque is applied at the mid-length of the elastica. The system of governing differential equations is derived from the equilibrium of an elastica segment and geometric relations of the inextensible elastica. The transformation matrix formulated in terms of Euler parameters is utilized to avoid the kinematic singularity. To display the behavior of the elastica, the system of differential equations needs to be integrated numerically from one end to the other end. The integration is performed so that the boundary conditions and some constraint conditions of the problem are satisfied, i.e., a shooting method is used. The effect of self-contact is taken into account by considering the contact force as a point load applying at contact point. From the results, the snap-through phenomenon, effect of self-contact and equilibrium configurations are highlighted herein.