FE Analyses of Hyperelastic Solids under Large Bending: The Role of the Searle Parameter and Eulerian Slenderness

A theoretical model concerning the finite bending of a prismatic hyperelastic solid has been recently proposed. Such a model provides the 3D kinematics and the stress field, taking into account the anticlastic effects arising in the transverse cross sections also. That model has been used later to extend the Elastica in the framework of finite elasticity. In the present work, Finite Element (FE) analyses of some basic structural systems subjected to finite bending have been carried out and the results have been compared with those provided by the theoretical model performed previously. In the theoretical formulation, the governing equation is the nonlinear local relationship between the bending moment and the curvature of the longitudinal axis of the bent beam. Such a relation has been provided in dimensionless form as a function of the Mooney–Rivlin constitutive constants and two kinematic dimensionless parameters termed Eulerian slenderness and compactness index of the cross section. Such parameters take relevance as they are involved in the well-known Searle parameter for bent solids. Two significant study cases have been investigated in detail. The results point out that the theoretical model leads to reliable results provided that the Eulerian slenderness and the compactness index of the cross sections do not exceed fixed threshold values.