Second-order estimates for the macroscopic response and loss of ellipticity in porous rubbers at large deformations

This work presents the application of a recently proposed "second-order" homogenization method (Ponte Castaneda, 2002) to generate estimates for effective behavior and loss of ellipticity in hyperelastic porous materials with random microstructures that are subjected to finite deformations. The main concept behind the method is the introduction of an optimally selected "linear thermoelastic comparison composite", which can then be used to convert available linear homogenization estimates into new estimates for the nonlinear hyperelastic composite. In this paper, explicit results are provided for the case where the matrix is taken to be isotropic and strongly elliptic. In spite of the strong ellipticity of the matrix phase, the homogenized "second-order" estimates for the overall behavior are found to lose ellipticity at sufficiently large compressive deformations corresponding to the possible development of shear band-type instabilities (Abeyaratne and Triantafyllidis, 1984). The reasons for this result have been linked to the evolution of the microstructure, which, under appropriate loading conditions, can induce geometric softening leading to overall loss of ellipticity. Furthermore, the "second-order" homogenization method has the merit that it recovers the exact evolution of the porosity under a finite-deformation history in the limit of incompressible behavior for the matrix.