Pure Axial Shear of Isotropic, Incompressible Nonlinearly Elastic Materials with Limiting Chain Extensibility

The purpose of this research is to investigate the pure axial shear problem for a circular cylindrical tube composed of isotropic hyperelastic incompressible materials with limiting chain extensibility. Two popular models that account for hardening at large deformations are examined. These involve a strain-energy density which depends only on the first invariant of the Cauchy–Green tensor. In the limit as a polymeric chain extensibility tends to infinity, all of these models reduce to the classical neo-Hookean form. The stress fields and axial displacements are characterized for each of these models. Explicit closed-form analytic expressions are obtained. The results are compared with one another and with the predictions of the neo-Hookean model. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Limiting Chain Extensibility Constitutive Models of Valanis–Landel Type

A new general constitutive model in terms of the principal stretches is proposed to reflect limiting chain extensibility resulting in severe strain-stiffening for incompressible, isotropic, homogeneous elastic materials. The strain-energy density involves the logarithm function and has the general Valanis–Landel form. For specific functions in the Valanis–Landel representation, we obtain particular strain-energies, some of which have been proposed in the recent literature. The stress–stretch response in some basic homogeneous deformations is described for these particular strain-energy densities. It is shown that the stress response in these deformations is similar to that predicted by the Gent model involving the first invariant of the Cauchy–Green tensor. The models discussed here depend on both the first and second invariants.      

Invariance of the Equilibrium Equations of Finite Elasticity for Compressible Materials

For homogeneous, isotropic, compressible nonlinearly elastic materials, a wide class of strain-energy density functions are obtained that leave the equations of equilibrium invariant under simple scaling transformations of the material and spatial coordinates. These strain-energy densities are homogeneous functions of the principal stretches. Several illustrative examples of particular strain-energies are provided. For axisymmetric problems, the invariance discussed here ensures that the equations of equilibrium can be solved by quadratures and thus often leads to analytic solutions in parametric or closed-form. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000) 74B20, 74G55.     

CAVITATION BIFURCATION FOR COMPRESSIBLE ANISOTROPIC HYPERELASTIC MATERIALS

I. INTRODUCTION The cavitation bifurcation problem, sudden formation and growth of voids in solid materials, haslong attracted much attention because of the fundamental role it plays in the local failure and fractureof materials. For hyperelastic materi…     

Simple Torsion of Isotropic, Hyperelastic, Incompressible Materials with Limiting Chain Extensibility

The purpose of this research is to investigate the simple torsion problem for a solid circular cylinder composed of isotropic hyperelastic incompressible materials with limiting chain extensibility. Three popular models that account for hardening at large deformations are examined. These models involve a strain-energy density which depends only on the first invariant of the Cauchy–Green tensor. In the limit as a polymeric chain extensibility tends to infinity, all of these models reduce to the classical neo-Hookean form. The main mechanical quantities of interest in the torsion problem are obtained in closed form. In this way, it is shown that the torsional response of all three materials is similar. While the predictions of the models agree qualitatively with experimental data, the quantitative agreement is poor as is the case for the neo-Hookean material. In fact, by using a global universal relation, it is shown that the experimental data cannot be predicted quantitatively by any strain-energy density which depends solely on the first invariant. It is shown that a modification of the strain energies to include a term linear in the second invariant can be used to remedy this defect. Whether the modified strain-energies, which reflect material hardening, are a feasible alternative to the classic Mooney–Rivlin model remains an open question which can be resolved only by large strain experiments. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Saturated Elastic Porous Solids: Incompressible,Compressible and Hybrid Binary Models

Constitutive models for a general binary elastic-porous media are investigated by two complementary approaches. These models include both constituents treated as compressible/incompressible, a compressible solid phase with an incompressible fluid phase (hybrid model of first type), and an incompressible solid phase with a compressible fluid phase (hybrid model of second type). The macroscopic continuum mechanical approach uses evaluation of entropy inequality with the saturation condition always considered as a constraint. This constraint leads to an interface pressure acting in both constituents. Two constitutive equations for the interface pressure, one for each phase, are identified, thus closing the set of field equations. The micromechanical approach shows that the results of Didwania and de Boer can be easily extended to general binary porous media.     

Constitutive modeling and the trousers test for fracture of rubber-like materials

The classical constitutive modeling of incompressible hyperelastic materials such as vulcanized rubber involves strain-energy densities that depend on the first two invariants of the strain tensor. The most well-known of these is the Mooney-Rivlin model and its specialization to the neo-Hookean form. While each of these models accurately predicts the mechanical behavior of rubber at moderate stretches, they fail to reflect the severe strain-stiffening and effects of limiting chain extensibility observed in experiments at large stretch. In recent years, several constitutive models that capture the effects of limiting chain extensibility have been proposed. Here we confine attention to two such phenomenological models. The first, proposed by Gent in 1996, depends only on the first invariant and involves just two material parameters. Its mathematical simplicity has facilitated the analytic solution of a wide variety of basic boundary-value problems. A modification of this model that reflects dependence on the second invariant has been proposed recently by Horgan and Saccomandi. Here we discuss the stress response of the Gent and HS models for some homogeneous deformations and apply the results to the fracture of rubber-like materials. Attention is focused on a particular fracture test, namely the trousers test where two legs of a cut specimen are pulled horizontally apart. It is shown that the cut position plays a key role in the fracture analysis, and that the effect of the cut position depends crucially on the constitutive model employed. For stiff rubber-like or biological materials, it is shown that the influence of the cut position is diminished. In fact, for linearly elastic materials, the critical driving force for fracture is independent of the cut position. It is also shown that the limiting chain extensibility models predict finite fracture toughness as the cut position approaches the edge of the specimen whereas classical hyperelastic models predict unbounded toughness in this limit. The results are relevant to the structural integrity of rubber components such as vibration isolators, vehicle tires, earthquake bearings, seals and flexible joints.     

Universal Deformations for a Class of Compressible Isotropic Hyperelastic Materials

Differential conditions are derived for a smooth deformation to be universal for a class of isotropic hyperelastic materials that we regard as a compressible variant (a notion we make precise) of Mooney–Rivlin’s class, and that includes the materials studied originally by Tolotti in 1943 and later, independently, by Blatz. The collection of all universal deformations for an incompressible material class is shown to contain, modulo a uniform dilation, all the universal deformations for its compressible variants. As an application of this result, by searching the known families of universal deformations for all incompressible isotropic materials, a nontrivial universal deformation for Tolotti materials is found. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Plane Strain Bending of Cylindrical Sectors of Admissible Compressible Hyperelastic Materials

In the theory of nonlinear elasticity of rubber-like materials, if a homogeneous isotropic compressible material is described by a strain–energy function that is a homogeneous function of the principal stretches, then the equations of equilibrium for axisymmetric deformations reduce to a separable first-order ordinary differential equation. For a particular class of such strain–energy functions, this property is used to obtain a general parametric solution to the equilibrium equation for plane strain bending of cylindrical sectors. Specification of the arbitrary function that appears in such strain–energy functions yields some parametric solutions. In some cases, the parameter can be eliminated to yield closed-form solutions in implicit or explicit form. Other possible forms for the arbitrary constitutive function that are likely to yield such solutions are also indicated.     

On Compressible Materials Capable of Sustaining Axisymmetric Shear Deformations. Part 4: Helical Shear of Anisotropic Hyperelastic Materials

Conditions on the form of the strain energy function in order that homogeneous, compressible and isotropic hyperelastic materials may sustain controllable static, axisymmetric anti-plane shear, azimuthal shear, and helical shear deformations of a hollow, circular cylinder have been explored in several recent papers. Here we study conditions on the strain energy function for homogeneous and compressible, anisotropic hyperelastic materials necessary and sufficient to sustain controllable, axisymmetric helical shear deformations of the tube. Similar results for separate axisymmetric anti-plane shear deformations and rotational shear deformations are then obtained from the principal theorem for helical shear deformations. The three theorems are illustrated for general compressible transversely isotropic materials for which the isotropy axis coincides with the cylinder axis. Previously known necessary and sufficient conditions on the strain energy for compressible and isotropic hyperelastic materials in order that the three classes of axisymmetric shear deformations may be possible follow by specialization of the anisotropic case. It is shown that the required monotonicity condition for the isotropic case is much simpler and less restrictive. Restrictions necessary and sufficient for anti-plane and rotational shear deformations to be possible in compressible hyperelastic materials having a helical axis of transverse isotropy that winds at a constant angle around the tube axis are derived. Results for the previous case and for a circular axis of transverse isotropy are included as degenerate helices. All of the conditions derived here have essentially algebraic structure and are easy to apply. The general rules are applied in several examples for specific strain energy functions of compressible and homogeneous transversely isotropic materials having straight, circular, and helical axes of material symmetry.     

General Expressions of Constitutive Equations for Isotropic Elastic Damaged Materials

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＳｉｎｃｅｔｈｅｐｉｏｎｅｅｒｉｎｇｗｏｒｋｓｂｙＫａｃｈａｎｏｖ[1]ａｎｄＲａｂｏｔｎｏｖ[2 ]ｆｏｒｃｒｅｅｐｆａｉｌｕｒｅｏｆｍｅｔａｌｓ,ｔｈｅｄａｍａｇｅｍｅｃｈａｎｉｃｓｈａｓｂｅｅｎｇｒｅａｔｌｙｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｅｄａｎｄｈａｓｂｅｃｏｍｅａｍｏｓｔａｃｔｉｖｅｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈａｒｅａ[3- 6 ].Ｔｈｅｄｅｓｃｒｉｐｔｉｏｎｏｆｄａｍａｇｅｃｏｎｓｔｉｔｕｔｉｖｅｒｅｌａｔｉｏｎｓｉｓａｂａｓｉｃｐｒｏｂｌｅｍｏｆｔｈｅｄａｍａｇｅｍｅｃｈａｎ ｉｃｓ.Ｔｈｅｓｔｒａｉ…     

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.      

The remarkable Gent constitutive model for hyperelastic materials

In 1996, Alan Gent published a short paper that proposed the use of a very simple two parameter phenomenological constitutive model for hyperelastic isotropic incompressible materials. The model is empirical but has the advantages of mathematical simplicity, reflects the severe strain-stiffening at large strains observed experimentally, reduces to the classic neo-Hookean model for small strains and involves just two material parameters namely the shear modulus for infinitesimal deformations and a parameter that measures a maximum allowable value of strain. The model reflects the limiting chain extensibility characteristic of non-Gaussian molecular models for rubber. Here we review some of the numerous developments, extensions and widespread applications that have resulted from that groundbreaking paper not only in rubber elasticity but also in the area of biomechanics of soft biomaterials. The Gent model is remarkably robust: its mathematical simplicity combined with physical basis has ensured that it has reached status as a fundamental canonical phenomenological constitutive model for hyperelastic materials.     

The Pressurized Hollow Cylinder or Disk Problem for Functionally Graded Isotropic Linearly Elastic Materials

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of material inhomogeneity on the response of linearly elastic isotropic hollow circular cylinders or disks under uniform internal or external pressure. The work is motivated by the recent research activity on functionally graded materials (FGMs), i.e., materials with spatially varying properties tailored to satisfy particular engineering applications. The analog of the classic Lamé problem for a pressurized homogeneous isotropic hollow circular cylinder or disk is considered. The special case of a body with Young"s modulus depending on the radial coordinate only, and with constant Poisson"s ratio, is examined. It is shown that the stress response of the inhomogeneous cylinder (or disk) is significantly different from that of the homogeneous body. For example, the maximum hoop stress does not, in general, occur on the inner surface in contrast with the situation for the homogeneous material. The results are illustrated using a specific radially inhomogeneous material model for which explicit exact solutions are obtained. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Elastic instabilities for strain-stiffening rubber-like spherical and cylindrical thin shells under inflation

This paper is concerned with investigation of the effects of strain-stiffening on the classical limit point instability that is well-known to occur in the inflation of internally pressurized rubber-like spherical thin shells (balloons) and circular cylindrical thin tubes composed of incompressible isotropic non-linearly elastic materials. For a variety of specific strain-energy densities that give rise to strain-stiffening in the stress-stretch response, the inflation pressure versus stretch relations are given explicitly and the non-monotonic character of the inflation curves is examined. While such results are known for constitutive models that exhibit a gradual stiffening (e.g. exponential and power-law models), our primary focus is on materials that undergo severe strain-stiffening in the stress-stretch response. In particular, we consider two phenomenological constitutive models that reflect limiting chain extensibility at the molecular level. It is shown that for materials with sufficiently low extensibility no limit point instability occurs and so stable inflation is then predicted for such materials. Potential applications of the results to the biomechanics of soft tissues are indicated.     

实心圆轴扭转测定本构关系的概念和方法

本文提出了实心圆轴扭转试验建立有限应变本构关系(τ—γ曲线)的概念，并在文[1]工作的基础上完成了通过实心圆轴扭转试验建立文献[6]形式的有限应变本构关系的方法，它比单向拉伸试验所得到的本构关系更为精确，因拉伸实验变形较大时试件伸长和变细对测量结果有影响，尤其在“颈缩”后，很难对有关力学量作有效测量和分析，扭转本构关系的描绘也更为完整，以低碳钢为例，扭转本构关系所描述的有效范围比拉伸本构关系大十余倍，本文方法将有利于探讨研究更大应变下的材料力学行为。     

Modelling of Thin Elastic Plates with Small Piezoelectric Inclusions and Distributed Electronic Circuits. Models for Inclusions that Are Small with Respect to the Thickness of the Plate

This paper is devoted to the modelling of thin elastic plates with small, periodically distributed, piezoelectric inclusions, in view of active controlled structure design. The initial equations are those of linear elasticity coupled with the electrostatic equation. Different kinds of boundary conditions on the upper faces of inclusions are considered, corresponding to different ways of control: Dirichlet, Neumann, local or nonlocal mixed conditions. We compute effective models when the thickness a of the plate, the characteristic dimension ε of the inclusions, and ε / a tend together to zero. Other situations will be considered in two forthcoming papers. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.