THEORY OF THERMOHYPERELASTICITY FOR NEAR-INCOMPRESSIBLE ELASTOMERS

Elastomers are often used in hot and confining environments in which t hermomechanical properties are important. It appears that published co nstitutive models for elastomers are mostly limited to isothermal cond itions. In this study, a thermohyperelastic constitutive model for nea r-incompressible elastomers is formulated in terms of the Helmholtz fr ee energy density phi. Shear and volume aspects of the deformation are decoupled. Thermomechanical coupling occurs mostly as thermal expansi on. Criteria for thermodynamic stability are derived in compact form. As illustration, a particular expression for phi is presented which re presents the thermomechanical counterpart of the conventional two-term incompressible Mooney-Rivlin model. It is used to analyze several adi abatic problems in a rubber rod.