Stresses and Deformations of Toroidal Shells of Elliptical Cross Section: With Applications to the Problems of Bending of Curved Tubes and of the Bourdon Gage

Abstract

Abstract This paper is concerned with the application of the theory of thin shells to several problems for toroidal shells with elliptical cross section. These problems are as follows: (a) Closed shell subjected to uniform normal wall pressure. (b) Open shell subjected to end bending moments. (c) Combination of the results for the first and second problems in such a way as to obtain results for the stresses and deformations in Bourdon tubes. In all three problems the distribution of stresses is axially symmetric but only in the first problem are the displacements axially symmetric. The magnitude of stresses and deformations for given loads depends in all three problems on the magnitude of the two parameters bc/ah and b/c where b and c are the semiaxes of the elliptical section, a is the distance of the center of the section from the axis of revolution, and h is the thickness of the wall of the shell. For sufficiently small values of bc/ah trigonometric series solutions are obtained. For sufficiently large values of bc/ah asymptotic solutions are obtained. Numerical results are given for various quantities of practical interest as a function of bc/ah for the values 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4 of the semiaxes ratio b/c. It is suggested that the analysis be extended to still smaller values of b/c and to cross sections other than elliptical.