The purpose of this course is to provide a carefully crafted state-of-the-art overview of the fundamental theories, established models and ongoing research related to instability and bifurcation phenomena in solids undergoing finite deformations, including the effects of electric fields and growth. The course will be organized around several complementary and interacting themes. A comprehensive overview of the continuum theory of materials subject to large deformation will be presented, including the constitutive equations of nonlinear elasticity, elastoplasticity, Cosserat solids, electroelasticity, residually stressed and fibre-reinforced materials, and growth in biological systems.

The general theory of bifurcation, instability and non-uniqueness within the framework of the continuum theory of solids will be discussed as the setting for applications to specific examples.

The equations governing linearized incremental deformation fields superimposed on a known finitely deformed configuration will be highlighted. The tensors of elastic moduli for isotropic and anisotropic materials will be derived, including their important incompressible specialization, and associated expressions for the incremental constitutive equations and boundary conditions will be provided. These are needed for the analysis of possible bifurcation of the equilibrium configuration into periodic patterns, and will be applied in order to obtain specific results for exemplary constitutive laws.

Particular applications that will be described are material, surface, interface and bending instabilities of diffuse type. The notion of strong ellipticity will be introduced, and phenomena, such as the appearance of shear bands, associated with loss of ellipticity of the governing equations will be described. Localized bifurcation phenomena will be examined in detail, including localized bulging of tubes, necking of plates, shear banding, creasing and folding. Appropriate numerical formulations will be provided in order to illustrate the solutions for a range of specific boundary-value problems.

A summary of the key equations of electroelasticity will also be given, leading to the corresponding incremental formulations of electroelasticity. In this context wrinkling of a thin film of dielectric elastomer, treated as a prototype actuator, can be generated by application of an electric potential between compliant electrodes on the surfaces of the film, leading to pull-in instability and dielectric breakdown, and therefore rendering the actuator ineffective.
Thus, analysis of such instabilities will be included in the course since this is important for the design and integrity of such devices.

The methods of stability analysis have a wide applicability in the context of the mechanics of soft tissue, particularly as related to instabilities associated with growth and remodelling. In growth and development, instabilities are used constructively by nature for the formation of structures, such as in the folding of tissues to form different parts of the brain. Aspects of stability and instability that relate to growth and the possible development of pathologies will also be discussed.

The course is addressed to doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in mechanical, civil and electrical engineering, materials science, applied physics and applied mathematics, academic and industrial researchers and practicing engineers.