The remarkable nature of radially symmetric equilibrium states of aeolotropic nonlinearly elastic bodies

Abstract

This paper treats the radially symmetric equilibrium states of aeolotropic nonlinearly elastic solid cylinders and balls under constant normal forces on their boundaries. It is shown that the aeolotropy gives rise to solutions describing both intact and cavitating states, which exhibit an array of remarkable new phenomena, not suggested by the solutions for isotropic bodies. E.g., it is shown that there are materials having a critical pressure such that for applied pressures on the boundary below the critical value, the normal pressures at the center of the body are zero and for applied pressures above the critical value, the normal pressures at the center are infinite. There are also materials for which there is no equilibrium state with center intact when the boundary is subjected to uniform tension. It is also shown that the equilibrium states treated here are the only radially symmetric equilibrium states. Thus the strange phenomena discovered here must be present in such stable equilibrium states.