Effect of Random Fiber Network and Fracture Toughness on the Onset of Cavitation in Soft Materials

Abstract: Experimental and theoretical observations have agreed that the onset of cavitation in soft materials requires higher tensile pressure than pure water. The extra tensile pressure is required since the cavitating bubble needs to overcome the elastic energy in soft materials. In this manuscript, we have developed two models to study and quantify the extra tensile pressure. In the first approach, we proposed a strain energy based random fiber network (RFN) failure criteria in which interaction between the cavitating bubble and RFN is considered. Gelatin samples are prepared for different concentrations, and SEM images are used to study the microstructural properties of the RFN. A unit-cell model is introduced to evaluate the geometrical and mechanical properties of the RFN. The network strain energy formulation is then coupled with the bubble growth, and the critical condition is set as the fibers ultimate failure strain. We considered soft materials as homogeneous hyper-elastic Ogden material, and fracture-based failure criteria are proposed in the second approach. The critical energy release rate is considered for quantifying the extra tensile pressure. Both the models are then compared with the existing cavitation onset criteria of rubber like materials. The validation is done with the experimental results of threshold tensile pressure for different gelatin concentrations. We have found that due to the large distribution of the pore size in the network, the nucleation pressure is similar to water. Both models can moderately predict the extra tensile pressure within the intermediate range of gelatin concentrations. For low concentration, the network's non-affinity plays a significant role and must be incorporated. On the other hand, for higher concentrations, the entropic deformation dominates, and strain energy formulation is not adequate.