A hyperelastic constitutive model for rubber-like materials

Hyperelastic behavior of isotropic incompressible rubbers is studied to develop a strain energy function which satisfies all the necessary characteristic properties of an efficient hyperelastic model. The proposed strain energy function includes only three material parameters which are somehow related to the physical quantities of the material molecular network. Moreover, the model benefits from mathematical simplicity, well suitting in all ranges of stretch and possessing the property of deformation-mode-independency. This reduces the required number of experimental tests for parameter calibration of the model. Results of the proposed model are compared with results of some available models as well as experimental data. Moreover, complete analysis of the Mooney plot over a wide range of stretch in extension–compression is carried out. It is found that the proposed model gives reasonable predictions in comparison with those of experiments.

► A strain energy function is developed for isotropic incompressible rubbers.
► It includes three parameters related to physical quantities of the molecular network.
► The model benefits from mathematical simplicity and well suiting in all stretch ranges.
► The model possesses the property of deformation-mode-independency.
► Existence of tangent matrix simplifies the numerical implementation in FEM.