Let’s deflate that beach ball

Gwennou Coupier (1) , Adel Djellouli (1) , Catherine Quilliet (1)

1 LIPhy - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique [Saint Martin d’Hères]

We investigate the relationship between pre-buckling and post-buckling states as a function of shell properties, within the deflation process of shells of an isotropic material. With an original and low-cost setup that allows to measure simultaneously volume and pressure, elastic shells whose relative thicknesses span on a broad range are deflated until they buckle. We characterize the post-buckling state in the pressure-volume diagram, but also the relaxation toward this state. The main result is that before as well as after the buckling, the shells behave in a way compatible with predictions generated through thin shell assumption, and that this consistency persists for shells where the thickness reaches up to 0.3 the shell's midsurface radius.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Gwennou Coupier, Adel Djellouli, Catherine Quilliet. Let’s deflate that beach ball. European Physical Journal E: Soft matter and biological physics, 2019, 42 (9), ⟨10.1140/epje/i2019-11900-2⟩. ⟨hal-02325204⟩