Distribution Of Containers Research Articles

Stretch and inflation of hyperelastic membranes as applied to blow moldiing

AbstractThe free and confined inflation of isotropic homogeneour membranes of general shape are considered. The material is assumed to obey the Mooney‐Rivin constitutive model, and the resulting partial differential equations, governing the deformation field, are solved using a Galerkin based finite‐element procedure. The method is illustrated through examples of both free and conflined inflation, as well as simulationeus stretch and inflation. Measurements were carried out on the final thickness distributionof containers blow‐molded inour laboratory. These containers typically cover a wide range of geometry adn size, including bottles with handles. Comparison between theory and experiment leads generally to good agreement, despite the limitation of the membrane hypothesis.