Study on cavitated bifurcation problems for spheres composed of hyper-elastic materials

Abstract

In this paper, spherical cavitated bifurcation problems are examined for incompressible hyper-elastic materials and compressible hyper-elastic materials, respectively. For incompressible hyper-elastic materials, a cavitated bifurcation equation that describes cavity formation and growth for a solid sphere, composed of a class of transversely isotropic incompressible hyper-elastic materials, is obtained. Some qualitative properties of the solutions of the cavitated bifurcation equation are discussed in the different regions of the plane partitioned by material parameters indicating the degree of radial anisotropy in detail. It is shown that the cavitated bifurcation equation is equivalent, by use of singularity theory, to a class of normal forms with single-sided constraint conditions at the critical point. Stability and catastrophe of the solutions of the cavitated bifurcation equation are discussed by using the minimal potential-energy principle. For compressible hyper-elastic materials, a group of parameter-type solutions for the cavitated deformation for a solid sphere, composed of a class of isotropic compressible hyper-elastic materials, is obtained. Stability of the solutions is also discussed.