Hyperelastic Material

Hyperelastic Material

A hyperelastic or Green elastic material is a type of constitutive model for ideally elastic material for which the stress-strain relationship derives from a strain energy density function. The hyperelastic material is a special case of a Cauchy elastic material.

For many materials, linear elastic models do not accurately describe the observed material behaviour. The most common example of this kind of material is rubber, whose stress-strain relationship can be defined as non-linearly elastic, isotropic, incompressible and generally independent of strain rate. Hyperelasticity provides a means of modeling the stress-strain behavior of such materials. The behavior of unfilled, vulcanized elastomers often conforms closely to the hyperelastic ideal. Filled elastomers and biological tissues are also often modeled via the hyperelastic idealization.

Ronald Rivlin and Melvin Mooney developed the first hyperelastic models, the Neo-Hookean and Mooney–Rivlin solids. Many other hyperelastic models have since been developed. Other widely used hyperelastic material models include the Ogden model and the Arruda–Boyce model.