helical ribbons

This study presents a computational approach to obtain nonlinearly elastic constitutive relations of strip/ribbon-like structures modeled as a special Cosserat rod. Starting with the description of strips as a general Cosserat plate, the strip is first subjected to a strain field which is uniform along its length. The Helical Cauchy-Born rule is used to impose this uniform strain field which deforms the strip into a six-parameter family of helical configurations-the six parameters here correspond to the six strain measures of rod theory.