Soft Bursting Membranes for Tunable Damping and Contact Mitigation

Inflation–deflation cycles are central to both natural and engineered systems—from biological capsules to soft robots—yet the discharge of air from deformable containers remains poorly understood. We show that elasticity crucially governs the deflation of hyper-elastic membranes, coupling shape evolution, pressure, and flow. For freely deflating membranes, we establish a modified Torricelli law linking deformation and discharge. Under compression, we reveal two regimes: continuous air release and burst-driven deflation, akin to a whoopee cushion. The latter enables tunable damping and energy dissipation.