In a ring compression test or lateral compression experiment, a tube is placed horizontally between two fixed rigid flat plates, so that the tube's rib is balanced between the plates. The tube was loaded under quasi-static conditions and the corresponding responses of load displacements were recorded.

An illustrative representation of the setup of lateral compression of tubes under a certain controlled load P. The final compressed tube is also illustrated schematically below. The laterally compressed tube obtains a shape similar to a horseback saddle when viewed from the compressed direction.

The load-displacement characteristic obtained from the lateral compression is presented. The tube is loaded in quasi-static load. The pictograph representation of the load-displacement curve depicts elastic loading as the linear region and as the yielding occurs, the loading stabilises and as the loading is continued and plastic deformation occurs, this is represented as an increasing slope.  The figure gives an illustrative representation of the setup of lateral compression of tubes under a certain controlled load P. The final compressed tube is also illustrated schematically below. The laterally compressed tube obtains a shape similar to a horseback saddle when viewed from the compressed direction.

The experiment were conducted for aluminium 6063 tube specimen of dimensions 50mm length and 50mm diameter and 1.6mm thickness was subjected to lateral compression.  The tube was tested under quasi-static conditions. Simultaneously, the load-displacement response was recorded for the same.