Influence of viscoelasticity on the response of rubber under tensile wave propagation

Numerical simulation of experiments done by Niemczura & Ravi-Chandar (2011a, 2011b) on the propagation of tensile waves in rubber are performed using an integral-based viscoelastic finite strain model. Under various pre-stretching and velocity conditions, these experiments shows that different kinds of wave are propagating as predicted by Knowles (2002). As a wide range of strain rate is encountered in the case of propagating waves, and as rubber is strongly strain rate dependent, this influence could explain the differences of wavefront as well as of wave speed. Our numerical results show that the global response of the rubber is recovered: simple waves for small prescribed velocities and shock waves for high prescribed velocities. Furthermore, the wave speeds are well-predicted. These results demonstrate the major influence of viscoelasticity for high speed dynamic loading conditions.