Abstract

The use of internal hyperelastic solids for modeling viscoelastic deformations of rubber vulcanizates is reviewed. The model is applied in one dimension to viscoelastic uniaxial tension and uniaxial shear experiments. Step‐strain relaxation tests are used to determine the model's parameters. A hyperelastic energy function, which represents the sum of the internal solids' energy functions, is obtained by least squares fitting a constrained third‐order invariant expansion of the Rivlin function to the difference between the step‐strain stresses and the relaxed stresses (the standard hyperelastic solid's stresses). The difference energy function is split into two parts and relaxation parameters (related to the rate of change of the internal solids' reference lengths) are selected so that numerically simulated step‐strain relaxation stresses approximate the experimental values (at approximately 50 ms). The model is then used to predict the experimental results from a different type of test, cyclic strain data, at three different strain rates (cyclic frequencies). Increased stress due to increased strain rate was indicated by the model for large strains.