Continuum based model for Natural rubbers

ARUN KRISHNA B J am21d400

May 20, 2023

1 Introduction
Phenomenological Modelling of rubbers is of two categories stretch based and
Invariant based. In this project stress response of Natural rubber is modelled
using Invariants. A structure of strain energy function is guessed by general
solution form of a Quasi linear first order PDE. Experimental data of Uniaxial
tension is fitted and parameters are found. With the parameters a good fit is
obtained for Pure shear and Unequibiaxial data.

2 Preliminaries
Natural rubber is a Isotropic,Hyperelastic material. Using these constraints
stored energy function is

ψ = ψ(C)
(1)
ψ = ψ(I1 , I2 , I3 )

Then 1st Piola kirchoff stress tensor is expressed as

∂ψ
P =2 (2)
∂C
The Piola tensor will be will be then
∂ψ ∂Ii
P =2 (3)
∂Ii ∂C
derivatives of invariants wrt C are
∂I1
=I
∂C
∂I2
= I1 I − C (4)
∂C
∂I3
= C −1
∂C

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3 Expression for stored energy
This section is based on Fuzhang Zhao(2016).ψ is obtained by contracting P
with C.
C
ψ=P : (5)
2
Substituting for P and simplifying
∂ψ ∂ψ ∂ψ ∂ψ −1
ψ=( + I1 )I : C − C : C + I3 C :C (6)
∂C ∂C ∂I2 ∂I3
using tr(C 2 = I12 − I2 the equation gets simplified as
∂ψ ∂ψ ∂ψ
ψ = I1 + 2I2 + 3I3 (7)
∂I1 ∂I2 ∂I3
This is a First order partial differential equation of quasi linear type. Its char-
acteristic equation is
dI1 dI2 dI3 dψ
= = = (8)
I1 2I2 3I3 ψ
The general solution for this is

V (ψ1 , ψ2 , ψ3 ) = 0; (9)

where
I2
ψ1 =
I12
I3
ψ2 = 3 (10)
I1
ψ
ψ3 =
I1
then a solution for ψ is
ψ = I1 ∗ (f (ψ1 , ψ2 )) (11)
√ 1−n
choosing f = c1 ψ1 + c2 ψ2 + c3 and I3 = 1 as material is in-compressibe the
3

final expression for ψ becomes

p
ψ = c1 I2 + c2 I1n + I1 (12)

4 Parameters estimation
√
Looking at the functional form of guessed for ψ terms I2 and I1 are rank-1
convex. It is reasonable to start estimating n with rank-1 convexity. For I1n to
be convex,
∂ 2 I1n ∂I1 ∂I1 ∂ 2 I1
= n(n − 1)I1n−2 ⊗ + nI1n−1 (13)
∂F ∂F ∂F ∂F ∂F ∂F

2
 ∂I1 ∂C T ∂I1
=( ) = (2S(F ⊠ I))T I = F + F T
∂F ∂F ∂C
∂ 2 I1
= 2(I ⊠ I) (14)
∂F ∂F
∂I1 ∂I1
⊗ = (F + F T ) ⊗ (F + F T )
∂F ∂F
using the identity (A ⊗ B)(a ⊗ b) = (a.Bb)A rank-1 convexity of first term of
I1n becomes and denoting F + F T = G,

(G ⊗ G)(a ⊗ b) : (a ⊗ b) = (a.Gb)G : (a ⊗ b) = (a.Gb)2 ≥ 0 (15)

c1 ≥ 0 c2 ≥ 0 n≥1 c3 ≥ 0 (16)
are sufficient
√ for ψ to be rank-1 convex. Large values of n is avoided as it sup-
presses the I2 term for initial stretch and also under predicts the Unequibiaxial
stretch data, maximum value of n is limited to 5. The constants c1,c2,c3 are
determined by minimizing the total squared error w.r.t c’s

ε = Σi (Pu (i) − Pue (i))2 (17)

where Pu and Pue are model Piola stress and Nominal stress obtained from
experiment and n is determined based best on fit obtained for unequibiaxial
compression with 1 < n < 5.

5 Results
The experimental data for Natural rubber is taken from A.G.James(1975). By
varying n between 1 to 5 and minimizing the total squared error w.r.t c’s the
value of n=3.85 gives best fit of data. For uniaxial tension the invariants are
√
λ1 = λ, λ2 = λ3 = 1/ λ
I1 = λ2 + 2/λ2 (18)
2
I2 = 2λ + 1/λ

The the expression for 1st Piola stress and principle stress from (3) becomes
c1
P = √ (2λ − 2/λ2 ) + c2 ∗ 3.85I12.85 (2 − 2/λ3 ) (19)
2 I2
∂ψ ∂Ii
Pj = (20)
∂Ii ∂λj

3
 After fitting the data,c1 = 0.107269, c2 = 3.4212634e−6 and c3 = 0.193713576.
Using these same parameters using ψ the graphs are plotted for Pure shear and
Unequibiaxial tension test.

Figure 1: Uniaxial tension for fitting data with model

Figure 2: Predicted model for Pure shear

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Figure 3: Predicted model for Unequibiaxial Tension

Figure 4: Predicted model for equibiaxial Tension

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6 conclusion
We can see from the above plot that the parameters fitted and the expression
for ψ works very well for Pure shear. For Unequibiaxial tension it works well
for λ1 ≤ 2.5 and after that the model is getting deviated from experimental
results.The model predicts the data worse for the case of Equibiaxial tension as
seen in the figure above.It can be seen that estimated values of c’s are positive
and are consistent with rank-1 convexity.Fuzhang Zhao(2016) have shown that
for vulcanized rubber the model predicts data exactly for all four modes of
deformation taken above. The form of function in Eq.11 is quite general and
can be used other materials also.The continuum model fits various modes of
de-formation using the data obtained from a uniaxial tension test only for the
tested incompressible hyperelastic materials. This leads to a reduced number of
requirements on material testing.

7 References