Compressible rubber materials: experiments and simulations

Porous rubber materials are often used in automotive industries. In this paper, a carbon black-filled one is investigated, which is used, for example, as sealing. Such materials are distinguished by viscoelastic behaviour and by a structural compressibility induced by the porous structure. To identify the material behaviour, uniaxial tension tests and hydrostatic compression tests are performed. Therein the main focus of attention lies on the basic elasticity and on the viscoelasticity in the whole loading range. An important observation of these tests is the viscoelastic behaviour under hydrostatic compression, which has to be included in the material model. Because of the two-phase character of cellular rubber, the theory of porous media is taken into account. To model the structural compressibility, a volumetric–isochore split of the deformation gradient is used. Therein the volumetric part includes the aspect of the point of compaction. Finally, the concept of finite viscoelasticity is applied introducing an intermediate configuration. Because of the viscoelastic behaviour under hydrostatic compression, the volumetric–isochore split is taken into account for the nonequilibrium parts, too. Nonlinear relaxation functions are used to model the process-dependent relaxation times and the highly nonlinear behaviour with respect to the deformation and feedrate. The material parameters of the model are estimated using a stochastic identification algorithm.     

Modelling of a Cellular Rubber with Nonlinear Viscosity Functions

In this paper a porous carbon black-filled rubber is investigated under uniaxial tension. On the experimental site the main focus of attention lies on the Mullins effect, the thixotropic and the viscoelastic behaviour. Because of the two phase character of cellular rubber, the Theory of Porous Media is taken into account. Performing a proper preconditioning, the Mullins effect can be eliminated. Hence, it is not included in the material model. The constitutive model for the basic elasticity is based on a polynomial approach for an incompressible material which is expanded by a volumetric term to include the structural compressibility. Finally, the concept of finite viscoelasticity is applied introducing an intermediate configuration. Nonlinear relaxation functions are used to model the process dependent relaxation times, to simulate the thixotropy and the highly nonlinear behaviour concerning the deformation and feedrate. The material parameters of the model are estimated using a stochastic identification algorithm.     

Finite strain––isotropic hyperelasticity

This paper presents a strain energy density for isotropic hyperelastic materials. The strain energy density is decomposed into a compressible and incompressible component. The incompressible component is the same as the generalized Mooney expression while the compressible component is shown to be a function of the volume invariant J only. The strain energy density proposed is used to investigate problems involving incompressible isotropic materials such as rubber under homogeneous strain, compressible isotropic materials under high hydrostatic pressure and volume change under uniaxial tension. Comparison with experimental data is good. The formulation is also used to derive a strain energy density expression for compressible isotropic neo-Hookean materials. The constitutive relationship for the second Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor and its physical counterpart, involves the contravariant Almansi strain tensor. The stress stretch relationship comprises of a component associated with volume constrained distortion and a hydrostatic pressure which results in volumetric dilation. An important property of this constitutive relationship is that the hydrostatic pressure component of the stress vector which is associated with volumetric dilation will have no shear component on any surface in any configuration. This same property is not true for a neo-Hookean Green’s strain–second Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor formulation.     

The mechanical behaviour of rubber under hydrostatic compression and the effect on the results of finite element analyses

Using finite element tools for the dimensioning of rubber components is state of the art. When conducting finite element simulations, a split of the strain energy function, which results in stresses, into a deviatoric and a volumetric part is made. The mechanical behaviour of reinforced natural rubber under hydrostatic pressure is determined to prove the validity of this assumption. Furthermore, a nearly incompressible material behaviour is assumed in simulations of rubber, which may cause an insufficient outcome quality especially for rubber components that are exposed to hydrostatic pressure like highly confined bushings. In this paper, a method is presented to determine the compressibility, or its reciprocal the bulk modulus of rubber. The effect of the bulk modulus of a natural rubber on the simulation results of a bearing is pointed out. The obtained results are compared to test data to show the significance of the value of the bulk modulus for achieving a satisfactory outcome quality. Therefore, reliable information about the in-use behaviour of rubber components is obtained to reduce the costs and the effort in the dimensioning process.     

Effect of elastomer slight compressibility

This paper is concerned with the constitutive equation for slightly compressible elastic material under finite deformations. We show that material slight compressibility can be effectively taken into account in the case of high hydrostatic pressure or highly confined material. In all other situations the application of the incompressible and nearly incompressible material theories gives practically the same results. Therefore it is of interest to consider the problem in which allowing for material slight compressibility leads to results essentially different from those obtained with help of the incompressible material model. In the present paper this difference has been demonstrated for the problem of high hydrostatic pressure causing an increase of the ‘bulk’ and ‘shear’ material moduli. The behavior of a long hollow cylinder of real material under finite deformations is analyzed. The cylinder is subjected to internal pressure and axial and circular displacements at the outer surface. This problem has been solved analytically using the small parameter method. The solution obtained predicts a decrease of the axial and circular displacements of the outer surface under fixed shear (axial and circular) forces when the internal pressure is applied.     

Thermomechanical characterisation of cellular rubber

This contribution discusses an experimental possibility to characterise a cellular rubber in terms of the influence of multiaxiality, rate dependency under environmental temperature and its behaviour under hydrostatic pressure. In this context, a mixed open and closed cell rubber based on an ethylene propylene diene monomer is investigated exemplarily. The present article intends to give a general idea of the characterisation method and the considerable effects of this special type of material. The main focus lies on the experimental procedure and the used testing devices in combination with the analysis methods such as true three-dimensional digital image correlation. The structural compressibility is taken into account by an approach for a material model using the Theory of Porous Media with additional temperature dependence.     

Equivalent and separable strain-energy functions in compressible,finite elasticity

A material non-uniqueness is identified for isotropic, homogeneous, hyperelastic, compressible materials. This non-uniqueness is a special case of the hyperelastic null Lagrangian. Equivalence classes of strain-energy functions (SEFs) are then obtained. This equivalence can be used to extend in a natural way some of the common SEF used in incompressible elasticity to compressible elasticity. The familiar Valanis–Landel separable form of the SEF for incompressible materials is extended in this way. Some necessary restrictions are imposed on this new form and its behaviour in uniaxial tension is discussed. Previous problems in using the Valanis–Landel form of the SEF in compressible elasticity have been overcome.     

Surface instability of elastic half spaces with hydrostatic loading on their surfaces

In this paper, the plane-strain buckling of compressible and incompressible elastichalf-spaces, whose surfaces are loaded by constant hydrostatic pressures, is studied byusing a small-deformation-superposed-on-large-deformation analysis, and the bucklingcondition for each case is obtained. For Blatz-Ko and harmonic compressible materials aswell as Mooney incompressible material, the influence of the surface hydrostatic pressureon the critical buckling condition is discussed in detail.     

Simple Shearing of Incompressible and Slightly Compressible Isotropic Nonlinearly Elastic Materials

The classical problem of simple shear in nonlinear elasticity has played an important role as a basic pilot problem involving a homogeneous deformation that is rich enough to illustrate several key features of the nonlinear theory, most notably the presence of normal stress effects. Here our focus is on certain ambiguities in the formulation of simple shear arising from the determination of the arbitrary hydrostatic pressure term in the normal stresses for the case of an incompressible isotropic hyperelastic material. A new formulation in terms of the principal stretches is given. An alternative approach to the determination of the hydrostatic pressure is proposed here: it will be required that the stress distribution for a perfectly incompressible material be the same as that for a slightly compressible counterpart. The form of slight compressibility adopted here is that usually assumed in the finite element simulation of rubbers. For the particular case of a neo-Hookean material, the different stress distributions are compared and contrasted.     

Distortion of Anisotropic Hyperelastic Solids Under Pure Pressure Loading: Compressibility, Incompressibility and Near-Incompressibility

The purpose of this note is to examine distortion during pure pressure loading for anisotropic hyperelastic solids. We contrast the corresponding issues in compressible and incompressible hyperelasticity, and then use these results to examine nearly incompressible materials. An anisotropic compressible hyperelastic solid will generally exhibit both volume change and distortion under hydrostatic pressure loading. In contrast, an incompressible hyperelastic solid—both isotropic and anisotropic—exhibits no change to its current state of deformation as the hydrostatic pressure is varied. Nearly incompressible hyperelastic materials are compressible, but approach an incompressible response in an appropriate limit. We examine this limiting process in the context of transverse isotropy. The issue arises as to how to implement a nearly incompressible version of a given truly incompressible material model. Here we examine how certain implementations eliminate distortion under pure pressure loading and why alternative implementations do not eliminate the distortion.     

Bifurcation in compressible elastic/plastic cylinders under uniaxial tension

The bifurcation problem of a circular cylinder of elastic/plastic material under uniaxial tension is investigated, with particular reference to the usual engineering criterion that necking is initiated when the load on the specimen reaches a maximum. The material considered is compressible, with a smooth yield surface and associated flow rule. A lower bound analysis shows that for the particular constitutive equation chosen bifurcation cannot occur under a range of loading conditions while the stress is less than a certain value which is itself slightly less than the stress at the maximum load point. Diffuse axisymmetric necking modes under the commonly assumed loading conditions of prescribed axial components of velocity and shear-free traction-rates on the ends are, however, found to be initiated always after maximum load, the delay depending on the same factors shown for an incompressible material in reference [1]. The effect of the elastic compressibility assumption is to reduce the delay for a wide range of geometries, but to increase it for very slender specimens, as compared with the incompressible case. Surface modes are also found, but at stresses of an unrealistically high order of magnitude.     

Understanding the need of the compression branch to characterize hyperelastic materials

Soft biological tissues are frequently modeled as hyperelastic materials. Hyperelastic behavior is typically ensured by the assumption of a stored energy function with a pre-determined shape. This function depends on some material parameters which are obtained through an optimization algorithm in order to fit experimental data from different tests. For example, when obtaining the material parameters of isotropic, incompressible models, only the extension part of a uniaxial test is frequently taken into consideration. In contrast, spline-based models do not require material parameters to exactly fit the experimental data, but need the compression branch of the curve. This is not a disadvantage because as we explain herein, to properly characterize hyperelastic materials, the compression branch of the uniaxial tests (or valid alternative tests) is also needed, in general. Then, unless we know beforehand the tendency of the compression branch, a material model should not be characterized only with tensile tests. For simplicity, here we address isotropic, incompressible materials which use the Valanis-Landel decomposition. However, the concepts are also applicable to compressible isotropic materials and are specially relevant to compressible and incompressible anisotropic materials, because in biomechanics, materials are frequently characterized only by tensile tests.     

The Effects of Compressibility on Inhomogeneous Deformations for a Class of Almost Incompressible Isotropic Nonlinearly Elastic Materials

Experimental data for simple tension suggest that there is a power–law kinematic relationship between the stretches for large classes of slightly compressible (or almost incompressible) non-linearly elastic materials that are homogeneous and isotropic. Here we confine attention to a particular constitutive model for such materials that is of generalized Varga type. The corresponding incompressible model has been shown to be particularly tractable analytically. We examine the response of the slightly compressible material to some nonhomogeneous deformations and compare the results with those for the corresponding incompressible model. Thus the effects of slight compressibility for some basic nonhomogeneous deformations are explicitly assessed. The results are fundamental to the analytical modeling of almost incompressible hyperelastic materials and are of importance in the context of finite element methods where slight compressibility is usually introduced to avoid element locking due to the incompressibility constraint. It is also shown that even for slightly compressible materials, the volume change can be significant in certain situations.      

On Structured Surfaces with Defects: Geometry,Strain Incompatibility,Stress Field,and Natural Shapes

In this paper we study the stress and deformation fields generated by nonlinear inclusions with finite eigenstrains in anisotropic solids. In particular, we consider finite eigenstrains in transversely isotropic spherical balls and orthotropic cylindrical bars made of both compressible and incompressible solids. We show that the stress field in a spherical inclusion with uniform pure dilatational eigenstrain in a spherical ball made of an incompressible transversely isotropic solid such that the material preferred direction is radial at any point is uniform and hydrostatic. Similarly, the stress in a cylindrical inclusion contained in an incompressible orthotropic cylindrical bar is uniform hydrostatic if the radial and circumferential eigenstrains are equal and the axial stretch is equal to a value determined by the axial eigenstrain. We also prove that for a compressible isotropic spherical ball and a cylindrical bar containing a spherical and a cylindrical inclusion, respectively, with uniform eigenstrains the stress in the inclusion is uniform (and hydrostatic for the spherical inclusion) if the radial and circumferential eigenstrains are equal. For compressible transversely isotropic and orthotropic solids, we show that the stress field in an inclusion with uniform eigenstrain is not uniform, in general. Nevertheless, in some special cases the material can be designed in order to maintain a uniform stress field in the inclusion. As particular examples to investigate such special cases, we consider compressible Mooney-Rivlin and Blatz-Ko reinforced models and find analytical expressions for the stress field in the inclusion.     

Experimental investigation and modelling of compressibility induced by damage in carbon black-reinforced natural rubber

While natural rubber is commonly considered as an incompressible material, this study shows how carbon black-reinforced natural rubber (NR-CB), when subjected to various mechanical loading conditions (uniaxial, hydrostatic, monotonic, cyclic), is affected by volume change. Experiments show a volume variation even for low straining values and a significant volume change for large elongations. Moreover, volume change can be either reversible or not, depending on the loading conditions. It is related to a competition between void growth, chain orientation, and stress softening. At a microscopic scale, in situ Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) examinations and image analysis allow one to record damage and microscopic volume change as a function of elongation. Therefore the volume change measured at the microscopic scale is equal to the macroscopic one. Based on the experimental results, this paper shows that the hypothesis of incompressibility is worth being revisited. Thus, a nearly compressible approach was considered, where the strain energy is assumed to be the sum of spherical and deviatoric parts that are both affected by damage. The model was then implemented in a finite-element code. Good agreement was obtained between experimental results and model predictions for low triaxiality test conditions.     

An evaluation of a combined isotropic-kinematic hardening model for representation of complex strain-path changes in dual-phase steel

This paper aims at evaluating an elastoplastic constitutive model which accounts for combined isotropic-kinematic hardening for complex strain-path changes in a dual-phase steel, DP800. The capability of the model to reproduce the transient hardening phenomena under two-stage non-proportional loading has been assessed through numerical simulations of sequential uniaxial tension and notched tension/shear tests. Finite element simulations with shell elements were performed using the explicit non-linear FE code LS-DYNA. Numerical predictions of the stress–strain response were compared to the corresponding experimental data. The results from the experiments demonstrated that prior plastic deformation has certainly influenced the subsequent work-hardening behaviour of the material under biaxial or shear deformation modes. Furthermore, the numerical simulations from the two-stage uniaxial tension–notched tension and uniaxial tension–shear tests predicted the general trends of the experimental results such as transitory hardening and overall work hardening. However, some discrepancies were found in accurately describing the transient hardening behaviour subsequent to strain path changes between the experiments and numerical simulations.     

聚硅氧烷硅胶的黏超弹性力学行为研究

聚硅氧烷硅胶是一类以Si——O键为主链、硅原子上直接连接有机基团的无色透明高分子聚合物, 因其具有优异的超弹性性能而广泛应用于精密减震结构、柔性电子器件等领域. 在聚硅氧烷硅胶减震结构和柔性电子器件的设计中, 材料在大变形和动态加载下的黏超弹性力学行为的精确描述至关重要. 本文针对该问题进行了系统的研究:首先, 将该硅胶的超弹性和黏弹性行为进行解耦, 确定其黏超弹性本构方程的基本框架;其次, 基于单轴拉压、平面拉伸试验确定其准静态超弹性模型的各项参数;再次, 利用霍普金森压杆冲击试验确定其黏弹性模型的各项参数;在此基础上, 将超弹性和黏弹性模型合并为适用于大应变和大应变率的黏超弹性动态本构模型;最后, 利用落锤冲击试验对该硅胶薄片的冲击变形行为进行了研究, 并利用上述建立的动态本构模型对落锤冲击过程进行了有限元模拟. 结果表明:本文建立的黏超弹性本构模型可有效预测该硅胶在冲击载荷下的力学行为, 从而为聚硅氧烷硅胶减震结构和柔性电子器件的优化设计提供了理论和应用基础.      

Constitutive Models for Compressible Nonlinearly Elastic Materials with Limiting Chain Extensibility

Constitutive models are proposed for compressible isotropic hyperelastic materials that reflect limiting chain extensibility. These are generalizations of the model proposed by Gent for incompressible materials. The goal is to understand the effects of limiting chain extensibility when the compressibility of polymeric materials is taken into account. The basic homogeneous deformation of simple tension is considered and simple closed-form relations for the deformation characteristics are obtained for slightly compressible materials. An explicit first-order approximation is obtained for the lateral contraction and for the Poisson function in terms of the axial extension which is shown to be valid for each of two specific compressible versions of the Gent model. One of the main results obtained is that the effect of limiting chain extensibility is to stiffen the material relative to the neo-Hookean compressible case. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000) 74B20, 74G55.