Writhing instabilities of twisted rods: From infinite to finite length (Q1612657)

The authors consider an elastic (Bernoulli-Euler) rod that is loaded by a twisting couples having the direction of rod axis. Three different loading experiments are considered. In the first it is assumed that the rod has infinite length, in the second rod is semi-infinite, and in the third the rod is assumed to be of finite length. The main result of the analysis is: in the first experiment during the deformation the rod looses stability and comes into self-contact, in the second experiment it is possible to have stable deformation throughout the experiment, and in the third case (finite rod) a possibility of hysteresis is discovered. The paper will be of interest to those working in the elastic rod stability under finite deformation.