An anisotropic full-network model with damage surface for the Mullins effect in filled rubbers

Abstract

The Mullins effect is a highly anisotropic damage phenomenon exhibited by filled rubbers among other soft materials. When filled rubbers are subjected to uniaxial tension, their apparent stiffness drops in the direction of stretching but is essentially unaltered in the transverse directions. However, micromechanical full-network models where Mullins softening is described at the level of individual chains often predict that uniaxial deformations induce transverse softening in addition to softening in the stretching direction. Moreover, these approaches typically require the storage of damage state variables for each chain, which is computationally expensive. Taking an alternative approach, we present a full-network model for the Mullins effect where the damage state is described by a single macroscopic damage tensor from which the damage state in each direction can be calculated. The evolution of damage is specified through damage surfaces and damage flow rules, which depend on the directions of principal stretches. The model is shown to reproduce experimental data for filled rubbers sequentially subjected to uniaxial tension in different directions. The model is also implemented in the finite element software ABAQUS as a user subroutine UMAT to illustrate the suitability of the model to simulate non-homogeneous deformation states.