Some anomalies of the curved bar problem in classical elasticity (Q1197272)

A classical problem in two-dimensional linear elasticity is that of a curved bar, defined in polar coordinates by \(a<r<b\), \(0<\theta<\theta_ 0\), clamped at the end \(\theta=\theta_ 0\), loaded by a shear force \(F\) at \(\theta=0\), free of traction along the curved boundaries \(r=a,b\). The solution is traditionally expressed in terms of an Airy stress function such that the boundary conditions on the sides \(r=a,b\) are satisfied exactly, while the boundary conditions at \(\theta=0\), \(\theta_ 0\) are satisfied only in the mean. The surprising result is that the solution is not unique. But the fact is not in contradiction with the uniqueness theorem of the theory of elasticity because the boundary data are prescribed only on the circular sides. In effect we can show that there are infinitely many solutions depending with continuity on a real parameter \(\lambda\). The solutions, however, become singular for \(\lambda=1\), but we can prove that the singularity is removable, because a regular solution can be generated by considering the difference between two singular solutions and then taking the limit as \(\lambda\) tends to 1.