An experimental study on creep deformation of thin-walled tubes under purebending

The creep deformation of pure bending (hold constant moment for a period of time) tests were conducted in this paper. Thin-walled tubes of 304 stainle ss steel were used in this investigation. The curvature-ovalization measure ment apparatus, designed by Pan rt nl. (1998), was used for conducting the present experiments. It has been found that as soon as the creep deformatio n is started, the magnitudes of the tube curvature and ovalization of tube cross-section quickly increase. The magnitudes of the creep curvature and o valization of tube cross-section increase fast with a higher hold moment th an that with a lower one. Owing to the continuously increasing curvature du ring the creep deformation, the tube specimen buckles eventually.