Localised bulging of an inflated rubber tube with fixed ends

Abstract

When a rubber tube with free ends is inflated under volume control, the pressure will first reach a maximum and then decrease monotonically to approach a constant asymptote. The pressure maximum corresponds to the initiation of a localised bulge and is predicted by a bifurcation condition, whereas the asymptote is the Maxwell pressure corresponding to a "two-phase" propagation state. In contrast, when the tube is first pre-stretched and then has its ends fixed during subsequent inflation, the pressure versus bulge amplitude has both a maximum and a minimum, and the behaviour on the right ascending branch has previously not been fully understood. We show that for all values of pre-stretch and tube length, the ascending branches all converge to a single curve that is only dependent on the ratio of tube thickness to the outer radius. This curve represents the Maxwell state to be approached in each case (if Euler buckling or axisymmetric wrinkling does not occur first), but this state is pressure-dependent in contrast with the free-ends case. We also demonstrate experimentally that localized bulging cannot occur when the pre-stretch is sufficiently large and investigate what strain-energy functions can predict this observed phenomenon.