Moderate deformations in extension-torsion of incompressible isotropic elastic materials

It has been previously shown by anand (1979) that the classical strain energy function of infinitesimal isotropic elasticity is in good agreement with experiment for a wide class of materials for moderately large deformations, provided the infinitesimal strain measure occurring in the strain energy function is replaced by the Hencky or logarithmic measure of finite strain. The basis in Anand's paper for relating Hencky's strain energy function to experiment was data from experiments on metals and rubbers in uniaxial strain, simple tension and compression, and pure shear. Here, to test further the validity of this strain energy function for moderate deformations, its predictions for the twisting moment and the axial force in simple torsion and combined extension-torsion of solid cylinders of incompressible materials are calculated and shown to be in good agreement with data from the classical experiments of Rivlin and Saunders (1951) on vulcanized natural rubber. Indeed, the predictions from Hencky's strain energy function are in better accord with experiment than the predictions from the widely used Mooney (or Mooney-Rivlin) strain energy function.