Response and stability of elastoplastic circular pipes under combined bending and external pressure

Abstract The response and stability of elastoplastic circular pipes under combined bending and external pressure are investigated both analytically as well as experimentally. A virtual work approach is used to formulate the problem, which results in a set of nonlinear algebraic equations which are solved numerically. The maximum moment and curvature for different pressures are determined as a function of the material and geometric parameters of the problem. For the range of parameters where limit load instability dominates, the results compare very well with experimental results for both steel and aluminium pipes.