On the eversion of compressible elastic cylinders

We consider the eversion problem for compressible hyperelastic isotropic thick-walled cylinders. We give a new strain-energy function for a highly compressible material that admits an exact solution to the problem with point-wise end conditions. Previously, only averaged loads could be accounted for. Secondly, we investigate the bifurcation problem for a wide range of material models. We find qualitively similar results to those obtained for incompressible materials. While thin-walled cylinders can be everted into other right circular cylinders if the wall-thickness exceeds some critical value, bifurcation into non-cylindrical shapes is possible. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.