Dimensional changes during shear without normal tractions (the Poynting effect) in nonlinear viscoelastic fiber-reinforced solids

Abstract

When a rectangular block of a nonlinear material is subjected to a simple shearing deformation, specific normal tractions are required to ensure that the distances between the faces of the block, i.e. its dimensions, do not change. This work investigates the time-dependent dimensional changes during shear in the absence of these normal tractions (the Poynting effect) that occur in a block composed of an incompressible nonlinearly viscoelastic fiber-reinforced solid. The material is modeled using the Pipkin–Rogers nonlinear single integral constitutive equation for viscoelasticity. This constitutive equation is used because (1) it exhibits the essential features of nonlinear viscoelasticity; (2) it is straightforward to include the material symmetry restrictions due to the reinforcing fibers. A system of nonlinear Volterra integral equations is formulated for the dimensional changes in the block. Numerical solutions are presented for the case when the standard reinforcing model for nonlinearly elastic fiber-reinforced materials is incorporated in the Pipkin–Rogers constitutive framework. The results illustrate how the time-dependent dimensional changes depend on the fiber orientation and the viscoelastic properties of the fibers relative to those of the matrix.