Distortion of Anisotropic Hyperelastic Solids Under Pure Pressure Loading: Compressibility, Incompressibility and Near-Incompressibility

The purpose of this note is to examine distortion during pure pressure loading for anisotropic hyperelastic solids. We contrast the corresponding issues in compressible and incompressible hyperelasticity, and then use these results to examine nearly incompressible materials. An anisotropic compressible hyperelastic solid will generally exhibit both volume change and distortion under hydrostatic pressure loading. In contrast, an incompressible hyperelastic solid—both isotropic and anisotropic—exhibits no change to its current state of deformation as the hydrostatic pressure is varied. Nearly incompressible hyperelastic materials are compressible, but approach an incompressible response in an appropriate limit. We examine this limiting process in the context of transverse isotropy. The issue arises as to how to implement a nearly incompressible version of a given truly incompressible material model. Here we examine how certain implementations eliminate distortion under pure pressure loading and why alternative implementations do not eliminate the distortion.