Application of a new constitutive model for the description of rubber-like materials under monotonic loading

The present paper is focused on the development of a constitutive model for the computational analysis of the mechanical behaviour of hyperelastic materials. One of the main obstacles in solving nonlinear elastic problems is the constitutive equation that must be as simple as possible but also realistic in the large strain range, especially for engineering purposes. Gao has proposed a relatively simple model that shows a good performance in tension as well as in compression. In this paper, the capabilities of Gao’s model have been discussed. Three sets of experimental data of different types of deformation are used to identify the model parameters. Numerical simulations are in good agreement with experimental data. Comparisons with Ogden’s formula and Mooney–Rivlin’s formula by means of a theoretical and a numerical analysis demonstrate that Gao’s model performs well for the description of hyperelastic material behaviour and covers a very large range of deformation. Another advantage of this model is that it only needs two parameters to predict the mechanical behaviour of hyperelastic materials. As an application, a singular problem of a wedge loaded by a concentrated tensile force is analysed.