Large strain analysis of rubber-like materials based on a perturbed Lagrangian variational principle

Abstract

A mixed finite element method is presented for the large strain analysis of rubber-like materials, which are considered to be nearly incompressible. Two types of constitutive relations are included: generalized Rivlin and Ogden's models. The finite element equations are derived on the basis of a perturbed Lagrangian variational principle from which both the displacement and pressure fields are independently approximated by appropriate shape functions. A physically meaningful pressure parameter is introduced in the expression of complementary energy. In the paper, a special effort is made to split the deformation energy into two distinct parts: isochoric and hydrostatic parts. By doing this, a quadratic convergence rate of nonlinear iterative solution is achieved, particularly for problems deformed in the large strain range. The finite element equations are specialized for a two-dimensional 9-node Lagrange element with three-term pressure parameters. Five examples are given to demonstrate the application of the proposed numerical algorithm.