Criteria for cavitation of rubber particles: Influence of plastic yielding in the matrix

The principles of the cavitation criteria for rubber particles in polymeric matrices are briefly reviewed. Although these criteria are based on a linear elastic analysis, it is shown that it is possible to extend them to take into account the elastic-plastic behaviour of the matrix. In this objective, the representative volume element of a periodic material was meshed and computations were performed using a finite element method. The results reported in this paper focus mainly on cavitation under uniaxial tension and examine the influence on the hydrostatic stress in the rubber particles of different parameters such as the volume fraction of rubber, the plastic behaviour of the matrix or the ratio of the elastic moduli. In all cases, plastic yielding in the matrix leads to saturation of the hydrostatic stress in the rubber phase. It is also shown that the history of cavitation barely influences the progression of plasticity in the matrix.