Finite elastoplastic deformation of an internally pressurized hollow sphere

This paper considers large elastoplastic deformations of an internally pressurized hollow sphere of dilatant soil. A complete analytical solution for the expansion of a hollow sphere is developed. The soil is modelled as an elastic-perfectly plastic material obeying the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion. A non-associated plastic flow rule is used and therefore the dilation of the material is fully taken into account. Closed form solutions are obtained for the stresses and the elastic-plastic deformations of arbitrary magnitude when a hollow sphere of soil is subjected to constant external pressure and monotonically increasing internal pressure. A selection of numerical results is presented to indicate the effects of various key parameters