Soft elastic composites: microstructure evolution, instabilities and relaxed response by domain formation (Q6163052)

Complementary methods for characterizing the macroscopic response of soft elastic composites subjected to large deformations are discussed. The author applies variational bounds of the Voigt and generalized Reuss and Hashin-Shtrikman types, variational estimates based on the use of suitably optimized linear comparison composites, and bounds based on the relaxation of the principal solution for the mesoscopic energy by means of a generalized Maxwell procedure consisting of the quasi-convexification of the energy and leading to domain formation. The neo-Hookean laminates and fiber-reinforced elastomers subjected to plane strain loading conditions are considered. In addition, it was found that the predictions for the macroscopic instabilities using the relaxation of the mesoscopic energy are generally different from (more conservative) and more consistent with the variational definitions of the macroscopic homogenized energy than those based on loss of ellipticity of the incremental elasticity homogenization problem.