Effects of material anisotropy and inhomogeneity on cavitation for composite incompressible anisotropic nonlinearly elastic spheres (Q1328745)

The authors investigate the combined effects of material anisotropy and inhomogeneity on void nucleation and growth in an elastic composite sphere by extending their earlier work concerning only the effect of material anisotropy. The elastic sphere is composed of two incompressible anisotropic nonlinearly elastic phases, each of which is transversely isotropic about the radial direction and perfectly bonded across a spherical interface. The bifurcation problem is considered for the composite sphere under a uniform radial tensile dead-load on its boundary surface. The solutions of the bifurcation problem are studied for all the values of the applied dead-load traction, and the critical load at which an internal cavity may be initiated is obtained. The stability of the cavitation solutions is examined by use of an energy minimization approach, and they are shown to be only stable (radially symmetric) solutions for sufficiently large dead-loads. An example illustrating various types of bifurcation is given for a specific material model. Besides, the stress distribution in the composite anisotropic sphere is discussed. The effect of cavitation at the center on possible interface debonding is considered. This is a finely written paper rich in information for the researchers working in the area of composite materials.