Analytic description and explicit parametrisation of the equilibrium shapes of elastic rings and tubes under uniform hydrostatic pressure

The parametric equations of the plane curves determining the equilibrium shapes that a uniform inextensible elastic ring or tube could take subject to a uniform hydrostatic pressure are presented in an explicit analytic form. The determination of the equilibrium shape of such a structure corresponding to a given pressure is reduced to the solution of two transcendental equations. The shapes with points of contact and the corresponding (contact) pressures are determined by the solutions of three transcendental equations. The analytic results presented here confirm many of the previous numerical results on this subject but the results concerning the shapes with lines of contact reported up to now are revised. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.