In the blow moulding processes, a tube-shaped parison (also called preform)
made of polymer is inflated inside a mould in order to obtain the desired
bottle shape. The free inflation of a cylindrical tube (a simplified kinema
tic of inflation for the preform before contacting the mould) has been inve
stigated in order to develop analytical models and then provide reliable va
lidation material for finite element software. The solutions calculated for
a tube made of a Newtonian fluid and a Lodge's rubberlike liquid material
using both exact volumic approach and thin shell approximation have been an
alysed and compared. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier
SAS.