Pressurized-Membrane Expansion

A pressurized gas (blue) expands an initially slack membrane (red). At later times, the system oscillates and is aided in reaching an equilibrium configuration by viscous damping in the gas. The radius of the cylinder at equilibrium is such that the pressure in the gas is balanced by the hoop stress in the membrane.


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Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of New Mexico.

Last updated: September, 1998
Copyright © 1998, Howard Schreyer, Deborah Sulsky & Allen York