Anisotropic stress-softening model for compressible solids

Abstract

A general constitutive theory for anisotropic stress softening in compressible solids is presented. The constitutive equation describes anisotropic strain induced behaviour of an initially “isotropic” virgin material. Parameters which characterise damage are proposed together with a concept of damage function. In order to develop an anisotropic stress-softening theory for compressible materials in close parallel to a recent incompressible anisotropic theory, the right stretch tensor is decomposed into its isochoric and dilatational parts. The ’free’ energy is expressed as a function of the dilatation, modified principal stretches, a volume change parameter and invariants of the dyadic products of the principal directions of the right stretch tensor and two structural tensors. A class of free energy functions is discussed and a special form of this class which satisfies the Clausius–Duhem inequality is proposed. Results of the theory applied to uniaxial tension, bulk compression and simple shear deformations are given. A sequence of deformations involving shear, hydrostatic-compression and hydrostatic-tension deformations is also investigated. In the case of hydrostatic-tension deformation, the stress softening is due to cavitation damage. The theoretical results obtained are consistent with expected behaviour and compare well with experimental data.