Response of a spherical cavity in an elastic viscoplastic medium under a variable internal pressure

A closed-form solution is given for the problem of a spherical cavity in an infinite elastoviscoplastic medium with kinematic hardening, when the cavity is subjected to an internal pressure that varies in any prescribed way.Under certain assumptions this problem takes account of the unit weight of the medium, and is particularly applicable to the deep underground storage of natural gas in rock salt.Some typical loading cases are shown.