  Surface stress, which is always neglected in classical elastic theories, has
recently emerged as a key role in the mechanics of highly deformable soft
solids. In this paper, the effect of surface stress on the deformation and
instability of soft hollow cylinder are analyzed. By incorporating surface
energy density function into the constitutive model of a hyper-elastic theory,
explicit solutions are obtained for the deformation of soft hollow cylinder
under the conditions of uniform pressure loading and geometric everting. It is
found that surface tension evidently alters the deformation of the soft
cylinder. Specifically, the surface stiffness resists the deformation, but the
residual surface stress is inclined to larger deformation. Effects of surface
stress on the instability of the soft hollow cylinder is also explored. For
both the pressure loading and geometric everting conditions, significant
changes in critical condition of the creases are found by varying the surface
parameter. The results in this work reveal that surface energy obviously
influences both the deformation and the instability of soft hollow cylinder at
finite deformation. The obtained results will be helpful for understanding and
predicting the mechanical behavior of soft structures accurately.
