Comparison of simple and pure shear for an incompressible isotropic hyperelastic material under large deformation

The concepts of simple and pure shear are well known in continuum mechanics. For small deformations, these states differ only by a rotation. However, correlations between them are not well defined in the case of large deformations. The main goal of this study is to compare these two states of deformation by means of experimental and theoretical approaches. An incompressible isotropic hyperelastic material was used. The experimental procedures were performed using digital image correlation (DIC). The simple shear deformation was obtained by single lap joint testing, while the pure shear was achieved by means of planar tension testing. Classical hyperelastic constitutive equations available in the literature were used. As a consequence, the results indicate that simple shear cannot be considered as pure shear combined with a rotation when large deformation is assumed, as widely considered in literature. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.