Evaluation of large deflection response of circular mesh tubes (1st report: without considering the effect of the ovalization)

In this paper, the large deflection of a circular mesh tube was investigated by using a finite element method. During this investigation, it is assumed that the tube is deformed elastically, and its structural nonlinearity due to large deflection was considered. In addition, a theoretical model of an arc-shaped beam is proposed in order to predict the equivalent stiffness. The equivalent stiffness can be used to estimate the nonlinear large deflection response of the tube. In particular, the effects of the number of spirals and the number of turns on the prediction accuracy was discussed.