Dissipative hyperelastic model for highly compressible elastomeric seals

This article deals with the modelling of RTV rubber seals (“Room Temperature Vulcanized”) containing compressible thermoplastic microspheres. The materials were tested for different types of loadings such as uniaxial tension, hydrostatic compression and simple shear. In addition to being highly compressible, these materials exhibit dissipative behaviour and damage phenomena like Mullins effect. Thus, the modelling approach in this work is based on the finite strain theory. Compressibility is introduced thanks to a split of the deformation gradient into isochoric and volumetric parts. This lead to a model able to represent dissipative phenomena for both deviatoric and spherical loadings. The parameters of this model are identified through a model reduction method involving Proper Othogonal Decomposition (POD) and an interpolation technique.