ON THE EVERSION OF COMPRESSIBLE ELASTIC CYLINDERS

We consider the eversion problem for compressible hyperelastic isotrop ic thick-walled cylinders. We give a new strain-energy function for a highly compressible material that admits an exact solution to the prob lem with point-wise end conditions. Previously, only averaged loads co uld be accounted for. Secondly, we investigate the bifurcation problem for a wide range of material models. We find qualitively similar resu lts to those obtained for incompressible materials. While thin-walled cylinders can be everted into other right circular cylinders if the wa ll-thickness exceeds some critical value, bifurcation into non-cylindr ical shapes is possible. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.