This paper discusses an experimental investigation of the behavior of sharp-notched circular tubes subjected to cyclic bending. The sharp-notched circular tubes of 304 stainless steel with three different diameter-to-thickness ratios (Do / t) were tested under symmetric curvature-controlled cyclic bending. It has been shown that the moment-curvature curves exhibited the loops with cyclic hardening and gradually becoming steady after a few cycles for all tested tubes. The ovalization-curvature curves revealed unsymmetric, ratcheting and increasing behavior with the number of cycles. In addition, five almost parallel lines corresponding to five different notch depths for each Do / t ratio were found from the experimental relationship between the cyclic controlled curvature and the number of cycles necessary to produce buckling on a log-log scale. Finally, an empirical relationship was proposed so it could be used for simulating the aforementioned relationship. By comparing with the experimental finding, the derived empirical relationship was in good agreement with the experimental data.

In this paper, an experimental investigation on the variation of ovalization for sharp-notched circular tubes subjected to cyclic bending is discussed. The tube bending machine and curvature-ovalization measurement apparatus were used to test the unnotched and sharp-notched 304 stainless steel tubes. For sharp-notched tubes, five different notch depths (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0mm) were considered in this study. It was found that the experimental curve of the ovalization and the number of cycles could be divided into three stages-an initial, secondary and tertiary stage. An empirical relationship was proposed for simulating the aforementioned curve for the initial and secondary stages in this study. It has been shown that the derived empirical relationship was in good agreement with the experimental data.