Thermodynamics-based stability criteria for constitutive equations of isotropic hyperelastic solids

Abstract

A generalized thermodynamic stability criterion for isotropic finite elastic solids is derived using the fundamental balance laws and field equations of continuum mechanics, which is then used to formulate constitutive inequalities for the polynomial form of hyperelastic constitutive equations. Individual thermodynamic constitutive inequalities (called T-C inequalities) are derived for the neo-Hookean, Mooney Rivlin, and three-parameter generalized Rivlin models under three pure homogeneous deformation modes, namely, uniaxial compression, uniaxial tension and shear (simple and pure), and are compared against two commonly used adscititious inequalities, the Baker-Ericksen (B-E) and E-inequalities. The range of stable model constants as defined by the T-C inequalities is represented by a region in an N-dimensional coordinate space (N is the total number of model constants), which is defined as the Region of Stability (ROS). It is shown that the ROS is a function of material deformation and evolves with the limiting strain, shrinking from an initially large region representing the necessary condition of thermodynamic stability to a converged region under infinite limiting strain that is equivalent to the ROS defined by the E-inequalities. By investigating the evolution of the ROS under different deformation modes, the implication of T-C inequalities on the selection of experimental routines and filtering of erroneous test data and model constants is discussed. It is also demonstrated that while the E-inequalities are over-restrictive for hyperelastic materials with small to moderate limiting strains, an observation supported by recent experimental evidence, the B-E inequalities are inaccurate under moderate to large limiting strain conditions. The applicability of the proposed mathematical framework to other hyperelastic strain energy density forms, such as exponential/logarithmic functions, is demonstrated by investigating the thermodynamic stability of the Fung-Demiray model. It is shown that the commonly assumed restriction that the Fung-Demiray model constants must be positive can be relaxed so that some typical material behaviors under small to moderate limiting strains can also be modeled.