Finite Deflections of a Cantilever‐Strut

摘要

A cantilever‐strut is an originally straight uniform thin rod clamped or ``built‐in'' at one end and acted on by an arbitrary force at the other end. The arbitrary force and the angle it makes with the tangent to the clamped end of the rod are regarded as independent variables. The problem of finding the deflection coordinates of the loaded end of the rod, the tangent angle of the loaded end, and the strain energy of bending in the rod is solved in terms of a newly defined function that satisfies a nonlinear partial differential equation. Solutions are given in series form. Since the cantilever‐strut is a segment of an inflectional elastica, the classical elliptic integral solution is also outlined for comparison with the more direct series solution of the problem.