A numerical study on bifurcations in multi-void growth in nonlinear elasticity

A numerical study on a new bifurcation phenomenon in multi-void growth is carried out for a 2-D problem in nonlinear elasticity, where the reference configuration is y-axisymmetric with two pre-existing small voids. The numerical experiments show that, under large radially-symmetric displacement boundary conditions, other than the y-axisymmetric equilibrium solution one would normally expect, there are two energetically more favorable non-y-axisymmetric equilibrium solutions in which the growth of one void is overwhelmingly dominant. The relationships between the critical bifurcation boundary displacement and the compressibility of the material as well as some geometric parameters are illustrated by numerical results. The numerical experiments also show that the existence of the secondary bifurcation will effectively expedite the onset of fractures.