Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The resistance to volumetric deformations displayed by polymer networks is largely due to secondary and tertiary interactions between neighboring polymer chains. These interactions are both entropic and enthalpic in nature but are fundamentally different from the entropic forces that resist shearing in these networks. In this paper, we introduce a new depiction of elastomers as a crosslinked Van der Waals fluid. Starting from first principles, we develop constitutive equations that are implemented in a continuum model as well as a discrete network model. Our models predict that the failure of polymer networks may be driven by an instability in the underlying polymer bulk 'fluid' or by the breaking of polymer chains, depending on the loading path taken. The results of this study indicate that material failure in elastomers exposed to a purely triaxial state, such as in a poker chip experiment, may be driven by an entirely different mode of instability than those deformed in pure shear, such as in a uniaxial tension experiment.
Institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, Cornell University
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,790
Awards: G1506042238, G2040377861, G2178118504, TO SIMULATE TO STIMULATE WITH QUANTIFIED UNCERTAINTY, FROM PORE-PARTICLE-TO-CONTINUUMSCALES, A CLASS OF PROBLEMS INVOLVING GRANULAR FLOWS, LARGE DEFORMATIONS, AND FRACTURE/FRAGMENTATION OF UNBONDED
AND BONDED PARTICULATE MATERIALS., G8791677964, A Multiscale Investigation of Fatigue Induced Damage Progression in Tendon
OpenAlex ID: W4407128222