Large elastic deformations of isotropic materials VII. Experiments on the deformation of rubber

Abstract It is shown in this part how the theory of large elastic deformations of incompressible isotropic materials, developed in previous parts, can be used to interpret the load-deformation curves obtained for certain simple types of deformation of vulcanized rubber test-pieces in terms of a single stored-energy function. The types of experiment described are: (i) the pure homogeneous deformation of a thin sheet of rubber in which the deformation is varied in such a manner that one of the invariants of the strain, I1 or I2, is maintained constant; (ii) pure shear of a thin sheet of rubber (i.e. pure homogeneous deformation in which one of the extension ratios in the plane of the sheet is maintained at unity, while the other is varied); (iii) simultaneous simple extension and pure shear of a thin sheet (i.e. pure homogeneous deformation in which one of the extension ratios in the plane of the sheet is maintained constant at a value less than unity, while the other is varied); (iv) simple extension of a strip of rubber; (v) simple compression (i.e. simple extension in which the extension ratio is less than unity); (vi) simple torsion of a right-circular cylinder; (vii) superposed axial extension and torsion of a right-circular cylindrical rod. It is shown that the load-deformation curves in all these cases can be interpreted on the basis of the theory in terms of a stored-energy function W which is such that δW/δI1 is independent of I1 and I2 and the ratio (δW/δI2) (δW/δI1) is independent of I1 and falls, as I2 increases, from about 0*25 at I2 = 3.