Experimental Investigations and Numerical Modeling of Incompressible Elastomers during Non-Homogeneous Deformations

Abstract

Abstract Three hyperelastic constitutive models, the Arruda and Boyce model, the Yeoh model, and the Ogden model, are used to simulate the response of vinyl elastomers in large, non-homogeneous deformation states. A single uniaxial compression test is used to characterize the elastomers to obtain model constants. Drucker stability is enforced by restriction of the coefficients for the Yeoh and Ogden models to produce physically feasible uniaxial results. The ability of the models to predict the global force versus deformation responses and deformed shapes for large deformation shear, tensile deformation of a long bar with fixed grips, and inflation of a thin disk is examined. The experiments used in this study are designed to provide known boundary conditions to eliminate ambiguity in the modeling. We demonstrate for the first time that each of these models may be sufficiently characterized via a simple, homogeneous compression test to allow accurate predictions of large, non-homogeneous deformations involving rotations of the principal stretch directions.