FAST-TRACK COMMUNICATION 2513

A simple and effective solution of the elastica problem

L F Campanile∗ and A Hasse
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), Dübendorf, Switzerland

The manuscript was received on 30 June 2008 and was accepted after revision for publication on 8 August 2008.
DOI: 10.1243/09544062JMES1244

Abstract: The bending behaviour of thin stripes and leaf springs, in the presence of large deflec-
tions, is ruled by the so-called Bernoulli–Euler equation. The standard solution approach of this
problem (‘elastica’) is represented by the non-linear finite-element analysis. In some special
cases, closed-form solutions are available, which involve elliptic integrals and functions. In this
article, an alternative method is presented based on the discretization of the deformed beam into
circular-arc segments. The method is fast and simple to implement, and therefore suits well for
the design and optimization of compliant kinematics.

Keywords: elastica, non-linear bending, finite deflections, compliant mechanisms

1 INTRODUCTION which make extensive use of long leaf springs, are

The elastica problem represents one of the classical
issues of mechanics. It deals with the determination
of the deflections of an inextensible bending beam,
rigid in shear, and subject to small strains but finite
deformations [1]. Analytically, the elastica problem
is approached by the so-called exact Bernoulli–Euler
equation (see section 2), whose solution is quite
challenging due to the non-linear nature of the prob-
lem and the need of imposing equilibrium on the
deformed shape.
Closed-form solutions were proposed for simple
loading cases and selected boundary conditions [2–4]
and are usually available in the form of implicit rela-
tionships involving elliptic integrals. At the present
state of the art, the most common and versatile
option for computing the deformation behaviour
of bending beams with finite deformations is the
use of a finite-element program. The geometrical
non-linearity of the problem is handled by stepwise
linearization.
The elastica is particularly relevant in the predic-
tion of the deformation behaviour of thin leaf springs,
and in general of compliant mechanisms, which are
often realized as arrangements of bending elements.
The so-called distributed-compliance mechanisms,
∗ Corresponding author: Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials
Testing and Research (EMPA), Überlandstrasse 129, Dübendorf,
CH 8600, Switzerland. email: flavio.campanile@empa.ch
usually designed by means of formal optimization
techniques [5]. Particularly when evolutionary tech-
niques are employed, this requires a very large number
of single computations, which motivates the search
towards fast and effective analysis methods.
A computationally efficient method for the anal-
ysis of bending beams with large deflections is the
so-called chain algorithm [6]. It is based on the dis-
cretization into beam elements, which are analysed
in succession, with each element cantilevered at the
end of the previous one. The response is computed
by inverting the elements’ stiffness matrices, and
non-linearity is treated by means of load increments.
In this article, a numerical solution procedure for
the elastica problem is proposed, which allows an
accurate computation with a small number of mathe-
matical operations. The beam is divided into segments
which – in the case of an initially straight beam –
are deformed into a circle-arc shape under load.
Unlike the chain algorithm, the response of the sin-
gle segment is directly computed without the need
of matrix inversion, while taking into account the
full geometrical non-linearity. The choice of a circle-
arc segment for the deformed geometry offers several
advantages. First, the inextensibility condition can be
implemented in a straightforward way. Second, high
accuracy is reached with a relatively small number
of elements: a circle-arc deformation corresponds to
the exact solution in the case of constant bending
moment (i.e. loading of the beam by applied torque),
and a fine discretization is required only in the case

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2514 L F Campanile and A Hasse

in which strong gradients of the bending moment are
present. Localized strong curvatures can be well rep-
resented without requiring a mesh refinement. Finally,
the overall number of degrees of freedom is compar-
atively small (one single variable per element), which
leads to an algebraic equation system of smaller size.
In addition, for the case of a cantilever beam (or
other support configurations which can be reduced
to the case of a cantilever, see section 2), the resulting
equation system is triangular, allowing – within each
iteration step – for direct solution by means of suc-
cessive substitution. The circle-arc algorithm can be
easily programmed due to its simple structure and is
therefore suitable for direct integration into design or
optimization procedures.
2 THE CIRCLE-ARC METHOD
The following description of the circle-arc method is
limited to the case of an initially straight cantilever.
In some cases, the results can be directly applied to
other boundary conditions: in the case of a free–free
configuration, for instance, the beam can be artificially
fixed on one side and an arbitrary rigid-body motion
can be added to the solution; the response of a simply
According to equation (2), the beam is straight and
directed along the x-axis of the chosen reference
system when unloaded.
The beam is divided into N segments of equal length
l = L/N (a discretization with elements of different
lengths is possible as well, but will not be consid-
ered here for the sake of simplicity). Each segment is
assumed to deform into a circle arc when loaded. The
unknowns of the problems are the N curvature values
χ1 , χ2 , . . . , χN (4)
which are the inverse of the respective curvature radii
1
Ri = , i = 1, . . . , N (5)
χi
Continuity of the beam slope at the interface between
two adjacent segments (node) is imposed. The values
of the slope in the nodes (nodal rotations)
ϑi , i = 0, . . . , N (6)
can be directly computed from the curvature values

i

supported beam with symmetric loading can be com- ϑi = l χj (7)

puted by artificially clamping the beam in the middle j=0

of the span. In other cases, the circle-arc procedure

requires slight modifications and leads to a system of As implied by equation (7), the ith segment begins at
equations which is no longer triangular and must be the (i − 1)th node and ends at the ith node. According
solved by a suitable search algorithm or by shooting to equation (3), the coordinates x0 and y0 of the zeroth
methods. node are zero. The coordinates of the first node can be
The case of an initially curved beam can be eas- computed as
ily handled just by superposing the initial and the
sin(lχ1 ) 1 − cos(lχ1 )
load-induced curvature. Since the elastica problem is x1 = , y1 = (8)
defined under the assumption of small strains, the χ1 χ1
superposition principle at the strain level (i.e. at the
For each node, a local coordinate system is now intro-
curvature level) is still valid.
duced, with origin in the node (Fig. 1) and axes ξ (i)
The exact Bernoulli–Euler equation in intrinsic coor-
dinates reads [1]
dϑ
EI = M (s) (1)
ds
where s is the arc-length coordinate of the beam,
ϑ(s) is the beam slope angle, EI is the flexural rigid-
ity, and M (s) is the bending moment acting on the
cross-section of curvilinear abscissa s. Equation (1)
is completed by the relationships between slope and
coordinates in a Cartesian reference system
dx dy
= cos ϑ, = sin ϑ (2)
ds ds
and by the proper set of boundary conditions. In the
case of a cantilever beam these read
Fig. 1 The circle-arc method: nodes, elements, vari-
x(0) = y(0) = ϑ(0) = 0 (3) ables, and local reference system

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 Simple and effective solution of the elastica problem 2515

and η(i) . The new system is rotated by the angle ϑi 3 RESULTS

with respect to the xy-system. The local ξ (0) η(0) system
coincides with the xy-system. The circle-arc method was implemented in MATLAB
The coordinates of the ith node can then be and applied to several loading configurations. For
expressed in the (i − 1)th system similarly to equation high loads, the iterative procedure described above
(8) as follows tends to become numerically unstable. Stabilization
can be reached by updating the curvature values
sin(lχi ) 1 − cos(lχi ) gradually
ξi(i−1) = , ηi(i−1) = ,
χi χi
i = 1, . . . , N (9) [j+1] [j]
χi = αχi + (1 − α)χ̂i
The global node coordinates can be recursively [j]
× (χi , X1 , . . . , XN ; Y1 , . . . , YN ; T1 , . . . , TN ) (15)
obtained from
[j] [j+1]
xi = xi−1 + ξi(i−1) cos ϑi−1 − ηi(i−1) sin ϑi−1 (10) where χi and χi are the values of the curvature of
the ith segment at the jth and (j + 1)th iteration step,
yi = yi−1 + ξi(i−1) sin ϑi−1 + ηi(i−1) cos ϑi−1 (11) respectively, and χ̂i the curvature as it is computed
[j]
from χi and the loads X1 , . . . , XN ; Y1 , . . . , YN ; T1 , . . . , TN
If the beam is loaded in the nodes by forces with according to equations (7) to (13). The stabilization
given direction in the global system, then the bending parameter α, which ranges between 0 (included) and
moment about the nodes can be computed as 1 (excluded), can be chosen as a function of the
load or optionally be adapted during the computation

N
Mi = [Xi (xj − xi ) − Yi (yj − yi ) + Ti ] (12) depending on the convergence evolution. In its sta-
j=i+1
bilized form, the circle-arc method provides fast and
accurate results even for very high loading. Even if no
where Xi and Yi are the x- and y-components of proof could be produced that the circle-arc algorithm
the nodal forces, respectively, and Ti are the torques is stable for every possible choice of the loading condi-
applied in the nodes. tions, extensive parameter variation was successfully
In the case of follower forces, i.e. forces whose direc- performed, which gives confidence in the suitabil-
tion is defined with respect to the deformed beam, the ity of the procedure. Selected examples are described
moment expression has to be modified. below.
The curvature in the ith segment can be computed Figure 2 shows the post-critic response of an axi-
by means of the relationship ally loaded simply supported beam, subject to a load
equal to ten times the critical load. The response was
Mi−1 + Mi obtained by modelling one-half of the beam as a can-
χi = (13)
2(EI )i tilever strut with 50 segments. The computation took
18 ms on a 1.73 GHz Pentium (Windows XP).
which is obtained from the Bernoulli–Euler equation Figure 3 reports the elastica deformation of a highly
(1) with the bending moment computed as the arith- loaded basic cantilever (a cantilever beam loaded by a
metic mean of the moments about the nodes of the single force at the free end), the force being orthog-
segment. onal to the undeformed beam for different values
The beam’s response for the given nodal forces can
then be calculated iteratively: each step starts with
the curvature values (equation (4)). The nodal rota-
tions are then computed according to equation (7)
and the node coordinates result from equations (8)
to (11). New curvature values are finally obtained by
equations (12) and (13).
The expressions (9) are not defined for χ = 0 and
have to be replaced in this case by the corresponding
limit values
sin(lχi )
ξi(i−1) = lim =l
χi →0 χi
1 − cos(lχi )
ηi(i−1) = lim =0
χi →0 χi Fig. 2 Post-critic response of an axially loaded, simply
(14) supported beam, P = 10π 2 EI/L 2 , N = 50

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2516
Fig. 3 Response of a basic cantilever, N = 50. The num-
bers near the curves indicate the corresponding
value of the load parameter λ
of the non-dimensional load parameter λ = Fy L 2 /EI .
For λ > 3.15, the basic procedure is unstable and
requires stabilization according to equation (15). The
solution for λ = 1000 can be obtained by employ-
ing a fixed value of the convergence parameter (α =
0.996) and takes 0.36 s. Adaptive variation of the con-
vergence parameter can reduce the computing time
up to 0.11 s.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This work presents a fast, simple, and effec-
tive algorithm for computing the static non-linear
response of an inextensible beam, rigid in shear, and
subject to finite deformations (elastica). The algorithm
is well suitable to be integrated in the design and
optimization procedures. The reader is encouraged to
download the algorithm M-files at www.kompliant.ch
[7], use, and modify them. The authors are thankful for
any feedback.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was performed in the framework of
kompliant.ch, a Swiss initiative, for the development
of compliant mechanisms and solid-state kinematics.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
support of the GEBERT RÜF STIFTUNG, which
made possible to start this initiative through a grant
to EMPA.
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L F Campanile and A Hasse
REFERENCES
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2 Johnson, W. E. The load-deflection characteristics of ini-
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A119–A127.
3 Bisshopp, K. E. and Drucker, D. C. Large deflections of
cantilever beams. Q. Appl. Math., 1945, 3(3), 272–275.
4 Conway, H. D. The nonlinear bending of thin circular rods.
J. Appl. Mech., 1956, 24, 7–10.
5 Sauter, M. A graph-based optimization for the design of
compliant mechanisms and structures. PhD Thesis, ETH
Zürich, 2008.
6 Howell, L. L. Compliant mechanisms, 2002, pp. 261–268
(Wiley, New York).
7 www.kompliant.ch. Solid-state kinematics and compliant
mechanics.
APPENDIX
Notation
EI flexural rigidity
(EI )i flexural rigidity of the segments, where
i = 1, . . . , N
i, j indexes
l segment length
L beam overall length
M bending moment
Mi bending moment about the nodes, where
i = 1, . . . , N
N number of elements
Ri segment radius of curvature, where
i = 1, . . . , N
s arc-length coordinate
Ti nodal torques, where i = 1, . . . , N
x, y coordinates of the Cartesian reference
system for the beam geometry
xi , yi node coordinates, where i = 1, . . . , N
Xi , Yi nodal forces, where i = 1, . . . , N
α stabilization parameter
ϑ slope angle
ϑi node rotation angle, where i = 1, . . . , N
λ non-dimensional load parameter
ξ (i) , η(i) coordinates of the local reference
systems, where i = 1, . . . , N
χi segment curvature, where i = 1, . . . , N
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