Gent models for the inflation of spherical balloons

We revisit an iconic deformation of non-linear elasticity: the inflation of a rubber spherical thin shell. We use the 3-parameter Mooney and Gent-Gent (GG) phenomenological models to explain the stretch–strain curve of a typical inflation, as these two models cover a wide spectrum of known models for rubber, including the Varga, Mooney–Rivlin, one-term Ogden, Gent-Thomas and Gent models. We find that the basic physics of inflation exclude the Varga, one-term Ogden and Gent-Thomas models. We find the link between the exact solution of non-linear elasticity and the membrane and Young–Laplace theories often used a priori in the literature. We compare the performance of both models on fitting the data for experiments on rubber balloons and animal bladder. We conclude that the GG model is the most accurate and versatile model on offer for the modelling of rubber balloon inflation.