Unified constitutive modeling of rubber-like materials under diverse loading conditions

This paper presents a new constitutive model that unifies the behavioral characterizations of rubber-like materials in a broad range of loading regimes. The proposed model combines a selection of existing components that are known to reflect, with suitable accuracy, two fundamental aspects of rubber behavior in finite strain: (i) rate-independent softening under deformation, also known as the Mullins effect, and (ii) hyper-viscoelasticity, including at high strain rates. The evolution model is further generalized to account for multiple rates of internal dissipation (or material time-scales). Suitable means of identifying the system’s parameters from simple uniaxial extension tests are explored. Several aspects of the model’s behavior are shown in virtual experiments of uniaxial extension, at different stretch rates. A possible directional approach extending the model to handle softening induced anisotropy is briefly discussed.