Bifurcation of rotating thick-walled elastic tubes

The deformation of a circular cylindrical elastic tube of finite wall thickness rotating about its axis is examined. A circular cylindrical deformed configuration is considered first, and the angular speed analysed as a function of an azimuthai deformation parameter at fixed axial extension for an arbitrary form of incompressible, isotropic elastic strain-energy function. This extends the analysis given previously (Haughton and Ogden, 1980) for membrane tubes.Bifurcation from a circular cylindrical configuration is then investigated. Prismatic, axisymmetric and asymmetric bifurcation modes are discussed separately. Their relative importance is assessed in relation to the wall thickness and length of the tube, the magnitude of the axial extension, and the angular speed turning-points. Numerical results are given for a specific form of strain-energy function.Amongst other results it is found that (i) for long tubes, asymmetric modes of bifurcation can occur at low values of the angular speed and before any possible axisymmetric or prismatic modes and (ii) for short tubes, there is a range of values of the axial extension (including zero) for which no bifurcation can occur during rotation.