Constitutive modeling of complex interfaces based on a differential interfacial energy function

An important theory on the dynamics of complex interfaces is the Doi and Ohta theory where the interfacial contribution to the Cauchy stress tensor is determined from an interfacial conformation tensor. For a uniform deformation field in the Eulerian framework, Doi and Ohta adopted a decoupling approximation to reduce a fourth-order tensor into two second-order tensors and derived a differential equation governing the evolution of the interfacial conformation tensor. In this paper, a different formulation is presented for establishing the Cauchy stress tensor based on a path-independent interfacial energy function. By differentiating this interfacial energy function against a Lagrangian strain tensor, a nearly closed-form solution for the stress tensor was determined, involving only elementary algebraic and matrix operations. From this process, the stress-conformation relation proposed by Doi and Ohta is also confirmed from a thermodynamic perspective. The testing cases with uniaxial elongation and simple shear further showed improved fitting to the analytical or exact solutions.