I try to verify some formula from a paper concerning mechanics by retracing their derivation, involving some integrals like these:
The original source suggests that the solution is possible, but it seems quite tricky. I tried my best with SymPy (also with Maxima and Mathematica) fiddling around with different assumptions and simplifications, without any success:
import sympy as sp
from IPython.display import display, Math
x = sp.symbols('x', nonnegative=True, real=True, finite=True)
a = sp.symbols('a', positive=True, real=True, finite=True)
b = sp.symbols('b', positive=True, real=True, finite=True)
# print("assumptions for x:", x.assumptions0)
# print("assumptions for a, b:", r.assumptions0)
expr = x/(b + 2*(a-sp.sqrt(x)*sp.sqrt(2*a-x)))**3
expr = sp.expand(expr)
display(Math("e = "+sp.latex(expr)))
integ = sp.integrate(expr, (x, 0, a))
display(Math("integ = "+sp.latex(integ)))
SymPy returns my integrals unevaluated. Are there any other tricks and tweaks I could try to get a solution? The parameter a and b are physical dimensions (finite positive real numbers).

