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Indentation of compressible soft polymers in prestretched state

Hailiang Ma, Yueting Zhou, Xing Li, Shenghu Ding and Xu Wang

Vol. 20 (2025), No. 3, 327–352
DOI: 10.2140/jomms.2025.20.327
Abstract

Prestrains and residual stresses have certain impacts on the characteristics and functions of soft materials and tissues. Consequently, prestrains and residual stresses also influence the indentation test of soft materials. This paper focuses on the indentation contact of a compressible rubber polymer with prestretching conditions. It derives the semi-analytical expressions for the ratio of the indentation force to the indentation depth and the stress distribution. Subsequently, these semi-analytical expressions can be simplified into analytical expressions in the equiaxial prestretching case. Based on the deduced results, the influences of prestrain, ambient temperature, and indenter parameters on indentation force, indentation depth, and stress distribution parameters are further analyzed. The results indicate that the compressibility of the material makes the surface stiffness of the material increase under the condition of prestretching, resulting in a smaller indentation force or indentation depth during the indentation test. The analytical expressions obtained here in the equiaxial prestretching situation provides a theoretical reference for the indentation test of some soft materials.

Keywords
prestrain, compressible soft material, neo-Hookean material, surface Green's function
Milestones
Received: 22 April 2025
Revised: 6 July 2025
Accepted: 15 July 2025
Published: 2 September 2025
Authors
Hailiang Ma
School of Mathematical Statistics
Ningxia University
Yinchuan, 750021
China
Yueting Zhou
School of Aerospace and Mechanics
Tongji University
Shanghai, 200092
China
Xing Li
School of Mathematical Statistics
Ningxia University
Yinchuan, 750021
China
Shenghu Ding
School of Mathematical Statistics and Ningxia Key Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Mechanics and Scientific Computing
Ningxia University
Yinchuan, 750021
China
Xu Wang
School of Mathematics and Statistics
Ningxia University
Yinchuan, 750021
China