The curious case of 2D isotropic incompressible neo-Hookean composites (Q2085532)

The authors analyze the homogenized behavior of an isotropic and hyperelastic solid made of incompressible neo-Hookean materials. The homogenized energy functional takes the form: \(\mathbf{W}(\overline{\mathbf{F }})=\inf_{\mathbf{k}\in \mathbb{N}^{N}}\left\{ \inf_{y\in \mathbf{k} Y_{0\#}^{inc}}\frac{1}{\left\vert \mathbf{k}Y_{0}\right\vert }\int_{\mathbf{k }Y_{0}}\mathbf{W}(\mathbf{X},\nabla \mathbf{y})d\mathbf{X}\right\} \), if \( \det \overline{\mathbf{F}}=0\), and \(\mathbf{W}(\overline{\mathbf{F}} )=+\infty \), otherwise, where \(Y_{0}=(0,1)^{N}\), \(\mathbf{k}Y_{0\#}=\{ \mathbf{y}:\mathbf{y}=\overline{\mathbf{F}}\mathbf{X}+\mathbf{u}\), \(\mathbf{u }\in W^{1,p_{0}}(\mathbf{k}Y_{0};\mathbb{R}^{N})\}\) stands for the set of admissible deformation fields \(\mathbf{y}(\mathbf{X})\) with average gradient \(\frac{1}{\left\vert \mathbf{k}Y_{0}\right\vert }\int_{\mathbf{k} Y_{0}}\nabla \mathbf{y}d\mathbf{X}=\overline{\mathbf{F}}\) and \(\mathbf{k} Y_{0}\)-periodic fluctuations \(\mathbf{u}\), and \(\mathbf{k}Y_{0\#}^{inc}=\{ \mathbf{y}\in \mathbf{k}Y_{0\#}:\det \nabla \mathbf{y}=1\) a.e.\(\}\), as previously proved by \textit{A. Braides} in [Rend. Accad. Naz. Sci. Detta XL, V. Ser., Mem. Mat. 9, 313--322 (1985; Zbl~0582.49014)] and by \textit{S. Müller} in [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 99, 189--212 (1987; Zbl~0629.73009)]. The local stored-energy function \(\mathbf{W}(\mathbf{X}, \mathbf{F})\) satisfies, for arbitrary \(\mathbf{F}\), \(\alpha \left\vert \mathbf{F}\right\vert ^{p}\leq \mathbf{W}(\mathbf{X},\mathbf{F})\leq \beta (1+\left\vert \mathbf{F}\right\vert ^{p})\), for some \(\alpha >0\), \(\beta \) and \(1<p<\infty \). The authors here conjecture that in the 2D case and in the case of isotropic composites with local stored-energy function \(\mathbf{W }(\mathbf{X},\mathbf{F})=\frac{\mu (\mathbf{X})}{2}[\mathbf{F}\cdot \mathbf{F }-2]\), if \(\det \mathbf{F}=1\), and \(\mathbf{W}(\mathbf{X},\mathbf{F} )=+\infty \), otherwise, the effective stored-energy function is neo-Hookean being given by.\(\overline{\mathbf{W}}(\overline{\mathbf{F}})=\frac{\overline{ \mu }}{2}[\overline{\mathbf{F}}\cdot \overline{\mathbf{F}}-2]\), if \(\det \overline{\mathbf{F}}=1\), and \(\overline{\mathbf{W}}(\mathbf{X},\mathbf{F} )=+\infty \), otherwise. Here the effective material parameter \(\overline{ \mu }\) is the effective shear modulus of the corresponding isotropic, incompressible and linear elastic composite material, whose expression is \( \overline{\mu }=\frac{1}{\left\vert Y_{0}\right\vert }\int_{Y_{0}}\mu ( \mathbf{X})(1+e_{12}(\chi )(\mathbf{X}))d\mathbf{X}\), where \(\chi (\mathbf{X} )\) is the \(Y_{0}\)-periodic function that minimizes \(\int_{Y_{0}}\mu (\mathbf{ X})e_{kh}(X_{2}e_{1}+X_{1}e_{2}+\mathbf{\psi })\cdot e_{kh}(X_{2}e_{1}+X_{1}e_{2}+\mathbf{\psi })d\mathbf{X}\) on \(\{\mathbf{\psi } \in W^{1,2}(Y_{0};\mathbb{R}^{2}):\mathbf{\psi }\) \(Y_{0}\)-periodic and \(Div\ \mathbf{\psi }=0\}\). The authors recall the classical Voigt and Reuss bounds and they prove a new Reuss bound of neo-Hookean form. In the last part of their paper, the authors present computational results for the previous effective stored-energy function considering the cases of a neo-Hookean matrix filled with either rigid or liquid circular particles of monodisperse size. They here use the algorithm introduced by \textit{B.D. Lubachevsky} and \textit{F.H. Stillinger} in [J. Stat. Phys. 60, No. 5--6, 561--583 (1990; Zbl~1086.82569)]. They observe that the effective stored-energy functions for neo-Hookean composites made of a neo-Hookean matrix filled with circular rigid particles seem to be precisely of neo-Hookean form.