Rigid–Flexible Contact Analysis of an Inflated Membrane Balloon with Various Contact Conditions

Abstract

Considering the Mooney–Rivlin hyperelastic model, a semi-analytical approach is introduced to analyze the rigid–flexible contact behavior of an inflated membrane balloon between two plates with various interface conditions. This approach is based on differential formulation, and the coupling properties of equilibrium equations are well-solved. In order to verify the reliability of the proposed theoretical model, an experimental test was designed, by which some important contact characteristics and patterns (no-slip condition) were obtained. Two special phenomena were observed for the meridian stretch ratio with different friction coefficients. One is that the intersection points of all curves fall in a small interval, and the intersection of any two curves represents the same changing rate of the horizontal ordinate, resulting in the maximum difference. The other is the dividing point, where the stretch ratio decreases on the left and increases on the right due to the introduction of friction. These results provide solid guidance and support for our understanding of the rigid–flexible contact behavior of inflated membrane balloons.

Keywords

• Mooney–Rivlin hyperelastic membrane
• differential formulation
• stick–slip condition