In
continuum mechanics
Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such ...
, a Mooney–Rivlin solid
[Mooney, M., 1940, ''A theory of large elastic deformation'', Journal of Applied Physics, 11(9), pp. 582–592.][Rivlin, R. S., 1948, ''Large elastic deformations of isotropic materials. IV. Further developments of the general theory'', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 241(835), pp. 379–397.] is a
hyperelastic material
A hyperelastic or Green elastic materialR.W. Ogden, 1984, ''Non-Linear Elastic Deformations'', , Dover. is a type of constitutive model for ideally elastic material for which the stress–strain relationship derives from a strain energy density ...
model where the
strain energy density function is a linear combination of two
invariants of the
left Cauchy–Green deformation tensor . The model was proposed by
Melvin Mooney
Melvin Mooney (1893–1968) was an American physicist and rheologist.
Life
Mooney was born in Kansas City, Missouri.J. H. Dillon (1948) J. Colloid Sci. 4 (3) 187-8 "Introduction of Melvin Mooney as E. C. Bingham Medallist" He achieved an A.B. ...
in 1940 and expressed in terms of invariants by
Ronald Rivlin
Ronald Samuel Rivlin (6 May 1915 in London – 4 October 2005) was a British-American physicist, mathematician, rheologist and a noted expert on rubber.''New York Times'' November 25, 2005 "Ronald Rivlin, 90, Expert on Properties of Rubber, Dies" ...
in 1948.
The strain energy density function for an
incompressible Mooney–Rivlin material is
:
where
and
are empirically determined material constants, and
and
are the first and the second
invariant of
(the
unimodular component of
):
:
where
is the
deformation gradient and
. For an
incompressible material,
.
Derivation
The Mooney–Rivlin model is a special case of the generalized Rivlin model (also called
polynomial hyperelastic model) which has the form
:
with
where
are material constants related to the distortional response and
are material constants related to the volumetric response. For a
compressible
In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a f ...
Mooney–Rivlin material
and we have
:
If
we obtain a
neo-Hookean solid, a special case of a Mooney–Rivlin solid.
For consistency with
linear elasticity
Linear elasticity is a mathematical model of how solid objects deform and become internally stressed due to prescribed loading conditions. It is a simplification of the more general nonlinear theory of elasticity and a branch of continuum mec ...
in the limit of
small strains, it is necessary that
:
where
is the
bulk modulus
The bulk modulus (K or B) of a substance is a measure of how resistant to compression the substance is. It is defined as the ratio of the infinitesimal pressure increase to the resulting ''relative'' decrease of the volume.
Other moduli describ ...
and
is the
shear modulus
In materials science, shear modulus or modulus of rigidity, denoted by ''G'', or sometimes ''S'' or ''μ'', is a measure of the elastic shear stiffness of a material and is defined as the ratio of shear stress to the shear strain:
:G \ \stack ...
.
Cauchy stress in terms of strain invariants and deformation tensors
The
Cauchy stress in a
compressible
In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a f ...
hyperelastic material with a stress free reference configuration is given by
:
For a compressible Mooney–Rivlin material,
:
Therefore, the Cauchy stress in a compressible Mooney–Rivlin material is given by
:
It can be shown, after some algebra, that the
pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country a ...
is given by
:
The stress can then be expressed in the form
:
The above equation is often written using the unimodular tensor
:
:
For an incompressible Mooney–Rivlin material with
there holds
and
. Thus
:
Since
the
Cayley–Hamilton theorem
In linear algebra, the Cayley–Hamilton theorem (named after the mathematicians Arthur Cayley and William Rowan Hamilton) states that every square matrix over a commutative ring (such as the real or complex numbers or the integers) satisfies ...
implies
:
Hence, the Cauchy stress can be expressed as
:
where
Cauchy stress in terms of principal stretches
In terms of the
principal stretches, the Cauchy stress differences for an incompressible hyperelastic material are given by
:
For an incompressible Mooney-Rivlin material,
:
Therefore,
:
Since
. we can write
:
Then the expressions for the Cauchy stress differences become
:
Uniaxial extension
For the case of an incompressible Mooney–Rivlin material under uniaxial elongation,
and
. Then the
true stress (Cauchy stress) differences can be calculated as:
:
Simple tension

In the case of simple tension,
. Then we can write
:
In alternative notation, where the Cauchy stress is written as
and the stretch as
, we can write
:
and the
engineering stress (force per unit reference area) for an incompressible Mooney–Rivlin material under simple tension can be calculated using
. Hence
:
If we define
:
then
:
The slope of the
versus
line gives the value of
while the intercept with the
axis gives the value of
. The Mooney–Rivlin solid model usually fits experimental data better than
Neo-Hookean solid does, but requires an additional empirical constant.
Equibiaxial tension
In the case of equibiaxial tension, the principal stretches are
. If, in addition, the material is incompressible then
. The Cauchy stress differences may therefore be expressed as
:
The equations for equibiaxial tension are equivalent to those governing uniaxial compression.
Pure shear
A pure shear deformation can be achieved by applying stretches of the form
[Ogden, R. W., 1984, Nonlinear elastic deformations, Dover]
:
The Cauchy stress differences for pure shear may therefore be expressed as
:
Therefore
:
For a pure shear deformation
:
Therefore
.
Simple shear
The deformation gradient for a simple shear deformation has the form
[
:
where are reference orthonormal basis vectors in the plane of deformation and the shear deformation is given by
:
In matrix form, the deformation gradient and the left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor may then be expressed as
:
Therefore,
:
The Cauchy stress is given by
:
For consistency with linear elasticity, clearly where is the shear modulus.
]
Rubber
Elastic response of rubber-like materials are often modeled based on the Mooney–Rivlin model. The constants are determined by fitting the predicted stress from the above equations to the experimental data. The recommended tests are uniaxial tension, equibiaxial compression, equibiaxial tension, uniaxial compression, and for shear, planar tension and planar compression. The two parameter Mooney–Rivlin model is usually valid for strains less than 100%.
Notes and references
See also
* Hyperelastic material
A hyperelastic or Green elastic materialR.W. Ogden, 1984, ''Non-Linear Elastic Deformations'', , Dover. is a type of constitutive model for ideally elastic material for which the stress–strain relationship derives from a strain energy density ...
* Finite strain theory
In continuum mechanics, the finite strain theory—also called large strain theory, or large deformation theory—deals with deformations in which strains and/or rotations are large enough to invalidate assumptions inherent in infinitesimal strai ...
* Continuum mechanics
Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such ...
* Strain energy density function
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mooney-Rivlin Solid
Continuum mechanics
Non-Newtonian fluids
Rubber properties
Solid mechanics