A unified simulation for effects of gellan polymer concentrations on large strain elastic behaviors of gellan gels

Abstract

Purpose A direct and unified approach is proposed toward simultaneously simulating large strain elastic behaviors of gellan gels with different gellan polymer concentrations. The purpose of this paper is to construct an elastic potential with certain parameters of direct physical meanings, based on well-designed invariants of Hencky’s logarithmic strain. Design/methodology/approach For each given value of the concentration, the values of the parameters incorporated may be determined in the sense of achieving accurate agreement with large strain uniaxial extension and compression data. By means of a new interpolating technique, each parameter as a function of the concentration is then obtained from a given set of parameter values for certain concentration values. Findings Then, the effects of gellan polymer concentrations on large strain elastic behaviors of gellan gels are studied in demonstrating how each parameter relies on the concentration. Plane-strain (simple shear) responses are also presented for gellan gels with different polymer concentrations. Originality/value A direct, unified approach was proposed toward achieving a simultaneous simulation of large elastic strain behaviors of gellan gels for different gellan polymer concentrations. Each parameter incorporated in the proposed elastic potential will be derived as a function of the polymer concentration in an explicit form, in the very sense of simultaneously simulating large strain data for different concentrations.