Constitutive equations for amended non-Gaussian network models of rubber elasticity

New constitutive equations based on an amended form of the Kuhn–Grün probability distribution function due to Jernigan and Flory are derived from the standard James–Guth (JG) 3-chain and Arruda–Boyce (AB) 8-chain non-Gaussian molecular network models. The kinematics describing the stretch of a 1-chain model in an affine deformation shows that the relative stretch of a single molecular chain initially oriented along the diagonal of a cube is determined by the first principal invariant of the Cauchy–Green deformation tensor. The Kuhn–Grün probability distribution for a randomly oriented chain and its more general amended form due to Wang and Guth, are functions of only the relative chain stretch. Hence, any non-Gaussian network model for which the configurational entropy of all chains may be uniform is characterized by an elastic response function that depends on only the first principal invariant of the Cauchy–Green deformation tensor. Both the regular and amended AB 8-chain models are characterized by specific response functions in this class; the regular and amended JG 3-chain models, however, are not. An amended form of the phenomenological composite 3-chain/8-chain model suggested by Wu and van der Giessen is introduced. Analytical relations for several kinds of homogeneous deformations of the standard and amended models are compared with a variety of experimental data by others. It is found that results for the amended 3-chain and 8-chain models do not vary significantly from results for the corresponding regular models. The composite model, on the other hand, shows excellent overall agreement with the diverse data, including equibiaxial deformations for which other models show greater variance; but it offers no improvement in comparison with data for plane strain compression. Some remarks relating the chain parameters of the 3-chain and 8-chain network models, and the limiting chain and continuum stretches for these models are discussed in an appendix.