Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal

Bio: Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal is an academic researcher from Texas A&M University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Constitutive equation & Viscoelasticity. The author has an hindex of 77, co-authored 659 publications receiving 23443 citations. Previous affiliations of Kumbakonam R. Rajagopal include Kent State University & University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Viscoelastic transitions exhibited by modified and unmodified bitumen

Abstract: The working temperature of a bituminous pavement can typically range from 75∘C to −20∘C. Bitumen shows a wide spectrum of mechanical behaviour in this temperature range and these include those of a...

A note on viscoelastic bodies whose material properties depend on the density

Abstract: In this note, we study the response of a viscoelastic body whose stress relaxation modulus and creep compliance depend on the density of the body in such a manner that the stress and strain appear ...

On viscoelastic beams undergoing cyclic loading: Determining the onset of structural instabilities

Abstract: Structures made of viscoelastic materials generate sufficient heat during relatively long exposure to cyclic loading thereby perceptibly altering their body temperature. Temperature changes influence the rate of stress relaxation (or the rate of creep) in viscoelastic materials which in turn affects the deformations of the structures. This study is aimed at understanding the consequences of heat generation due to energy dissipation in viscoelastic materials under cyclic loading and its consequences on the overall time-dependent deformations of structures. A relevant practical application would be understanding cyclic failure (fatigue) in viscoelastic structures. As an example, we consider a simple polymeric beam under bending deformation due to cyclic mechanical loading. A viscoelastic constitutive model for thermorheologically simple materials is used to describe the thermo-mechanical response of the polymeric beam. The amount of energy dissipation that is converted into heat is accounted for in formulating the constitutive model. In beams under bending, the regions with the larger stresses generate more heat, which accelerate the stress relaxation in these regions and cause a temperature gradient in the beam. In the analyses we also allow the generated heat to be conducted. The governing equations are implemented in ABAQUS finite element for coupled heat conduction and deformation analyses. The accelerated stress relaxation (or creep strain) due to an increase in temperature from the energy dissipation is found to have significant effect on the time-dependent deformation of the structures. After certain period of cyclic loading, the structure becomes unstable. The heat conduction process within the beam lead to the softening in the overall structural stiffness (due to the accelerated stress relaxation).

Pure bending of an elastic prismatic beam made of a material with density-dependent material parameters

Abstract: We investigate the pure bending of an elastic prismatic beam, but unlike in the classical setting we assume that the material parameters are density-dependent. The corresponding boundary value problem admits a semi-analytical solution, and the derived formulae allow one to quickly assess the impact of density-dependent material parameters on the predicted deformation across various parameter regimes, and consequently make a decision on the importance of the density-dependent material parameters in the given setting.

Modeling of the response of elastic plastic materials treated as a mixture of hard and soft regions

Abstract: Inelastic materials that form dislocation cells on being deformed are modeled as a "constrained-mixture" of plastically hard and soft regions by associating different natural states with these regions. The deformation gradient from the reference configuration to the natural configuration is identified as the plastic deformation tensor and the stress is measured from a changing set of natural configurations. Two sets of natural configurations are introduced: one for the hard phase and the other for the soft phase. The full elastic response of the body is determined by elastic responses from different natural configurations. The energy stored in the dislocation networks is explicitly accounted for in the Helmholtz potential. Within a specialized constitutive set up, the soft phase is assumed to be non-hardening while the hardening response of the hard phase is dependent upon the response of both the hard and soft phases. These special forms are used to model the response of the material that forms cellular structures when subjected to cyclic loading.

A new constitutive framework for arterial wall mechanics and a comparative study of material models

Abstract: In this paper we develop a new constitutive law for the description of the (passive) mechanical response of arterial tissue. The artery is modeled as a thick-walled nonlinearly elastic circular cylindrical tube consisting of two layers corresponding to the media and adventitia (the solid mechanically relevant layers in healthy tissue). Each layer is treated as a fiber-reinforced material with the fibers corresponding to the collagenous component of the material and symmetrically disposed with respect to the cylinder axis. The resulting constitutive law is orthotropic in each layer. Fiber orientations obtained from a statistical analysis of histological sections from each arterial layer are used. A specific form of the law, which requires only three material parameters for each layer, is used to study the response of an artery under combined axial extension, inflation and torsion. The characteristic and very important residual stress in an artery in vitro is accounted for by assuming that the natural (unstressed and unstrained) configuration of the material corresponds to an open sector of a tube, which is then closed by an initial bending to form a load-free, but stressed, circular cylindrical configuration prior to application of the extension, inflation and torsion. The effect of residual stress on the stress distribution through the deformed arterial wall in the physiological state is examined. The model is fitted to available data on arteries and its predictions are assessed for the considered combined loadings. It is explained how the new model is designed to avoid certain mechanical, mathematical and computational deficiencies evident in currently available phenomenological models. A critical review of these models is provided by way of background to the development of the new model.

The physics of debris flows

Abstract: Recent advances in theory and experimen- tation motivate a thorough reassessment of the physics of debris flows. Analyses of flows of dry, granular solids and solid-fluid mixtures provide a foundation for a com- prehensive debris flow theory, and experiments provide data that reveal the strengths and limitations of theoret- ical models. Both debris flow materials and dry granular materials can sustain shear stresses while remaining stat- ic; both can deform in a slow, tranquil mode character- ized by enduring, frictional grain contacts; and both can flow in a more rapid, agitated mode characterized by brief, inelastic grain collisions. In debris flows, however, pore fluid that is highly viscous and nearly incompress- ible, composed of water with suspended silt and clay, can strongly mediate intergranular friction and collisions. Grain friction, grain collisions, and viscous fluid flow may transfer significant momentum simultaneously. Both the vibrational kinetic energy of solid grains (mea- sured by a quantity termed the granular temperature) and the pressure of the intervening pore fluid facilitate motion of grains past one another, thereby enhancing debris flow mobility. Granular temperature arises from conversion of flow translational energy to grain vibra- tional energy, a process that depends on shear rates, grain properties, boundary conditions, and the ambient fluid viscosity and pressure. Pore fluid pressures that exceed static equilibrium pressures result from local or global debris contraction. Like larger, natural debris flows, experimental debris flows of ;10 m 3 of poorly sorted, water-saturated sediment invariably move as an unsteady surge or series of surges. Measurements at the base of experimental flows show that coarse-grained surge fronts have little or no pore fluid pressure. In contrast, finer-grained, thoroughly saturated debris be- hind surge fronts is nearly liquefied by high pore pres- sure, which persists owing to the great compressibility and moderate permeability of the debris. Realistic mod- els of debris flows therefore require equations that sim- ulate inertial motion of surges in which high-resistance fronts dominated by solid forces impede the motion of low-resistance tails more strongly influenced by fluid forces. Furthermore, because debris flows characteristi- cally originate as nearly rigid sediment masses, trans- form at least partly to liquefied flows, and then trans- form again to nearly rigid deposits, acceptable models must simulate an evolution of material behavior without invoking preternatural changes in material properties. A simple model that satisfies most of these criteria uses depth-averaged equations of motion patterned after those of the Savage-Hutter theory for gravity-driven flow of dry granular masses but generalized to include the effects of viscous pore fluid with varying pressure. These equations can describe a spectrum of debris flow behav- iors intermediate between those of wet rock avalanches and sediment-laden water floods. With appropriate pore pressure distributions the equations yield numerical so- lutions that successfully predict unsteady, nonuniform motion of experimental debris flows.

Solving Ordinary Differential Equations

Abstract: Initial-value ordinary differential equation solution via variable order Adams method (SIVA/DIVA) package is collection of subroutines for solution of nonstiff ordinary differential equations. There are versions for single-precision and double-precision arithmetic. Requires fewer evaluations of derivatives than other variable-order Adams predictor/ corrector methods. Option for direct integration of second-order equations makes integration of trajectory problems significantly more efficient. Written in FORTRAN 77.

Hyperelastic modelling of arterial layers with distributed collagen fibre orientations

Abstract: Constitutive relations are fundamental to the solution of problems in continuum mechanics, and are required in the study of, for example, mechanically dominated clinical interventions involving soft biological tissues. Structural continuum constitutive models of arterial layers integrate information about the tissue morphology and therefore allow investigation of the interrelation between structure and function in response to mechanical loading. Collagen fibres are key ingredients in the structure of arteries. In the media (the middle layer of the artery wall) they are arranged in two helically distributed families with a small pitch and very little dispersion in their orientation (i.e. they are aligned quite close to the circumferential direction). By contrast, in the adventitial and intimal layers, the orientation of the collagen fibres is dispersed, as shown by polarized light microscopy of stained arterial tissue. As a result, continuum models that do not account for the dispersion are not able to capture accurately the stress–strain response of these layers. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to develop a structural continuum framework that is able to represent the dispersion of the collagen fibre orientation. This then allows the development of a new hyperelastic free-energy function that is particularly suited for representing the anisotropic elastic properties of adventitial and intimal layers of arterial walls, and is a generalization of the fibre-reinforced structural model introduced by Holzapfel & Gasser (Holzapfel & Gasser 2001 Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 190, 4379–4403) and Holzapfel et al. (Holzapfel et al. 2000 J. Elast. 61, 1–48). The model incorporates an additional scalar structure parameter that characterizes the dispersed collagen orientation. An efficient finite element implementation of the model is then presented and numerical examples show that the dispersion of the orientation of collagen fibres in the adventitia of human iliac arteries has a significant effect on their mechanical response.