Cavity formation and singular periodic oscillations in isotropic incompressible hyperelastic materials

In this paper, a dynamical problem is considered for an incompressible hyperelastic solid sphere composed of the classical isotropic neo-Hookean material, where the sphere is subjected to a class of periodic step radial tensile loads on its surface. A second-order non-linear ordinary differential equation that describes cavity formation and motion is proposed. The qualitative properties of the solutions of the equation are examined. Correspondingly, under a prescribed constant dead-load, it is proved that a cavity forms in the sphere as the dead-load exceeds a certain critical value and the motion of the formed cavity presents a class of singular periodic oscillations. Under periodic step loads, the existence conditions for periodic oscillation of the formed cavity are determined by using the phase diagrams of the motion equation of cavity. In each section, numerical examples are also carried out.