Modeling of nonlinear viscoelasticity and stress softening in soft tissues

Abstract

International audienceThis paper deals with the mechanical behavior of soft living tissues under load-unload and relaxation cyclic strains. It proposes a thermodynamic model formulated within the Generalized Standard Materials framework that incorporates both Mullins’ effect and viscoelasticity, integrating the history dependent behavior of the material under finite strain. A key innovation lies in the use of a common softening function to modulate both the hyperelastic and viscous components, capturing history-dependent behavior more accurately. Viscous parameters are adjusted based on the loading history via the maximum strain invariant. Numerical implementation is validated against uniaxial tensile tests on porcine perineal tissues and a global Sobol sensitivity analysis confirms that elastic, viscous, and Mullins-related parameters are identifiable from different phases of the loading protocol. This model provides a unified, thermodynamical consistent tool for simulating soft tissue mechanics