International audienceMany soft tissues are naturally made of a matrix and fibres that present some privileged directions. They are known to support large reversible deformations. The mechanical behaviour of these tissues highlights different phenomena as hysteresis, stress softening or relaxation. A hyperelastic constitutive equation is typically the basis of the model that describes the behaviour of the material. The hyperelastic constitutive equation can be isotropic or anisotropic, it is generally expressed by means of strain components or strain invariants. This paper proposes a review of these constitutive equations

Rubber like materials parts are designed using finite element code in which more and more precise and robust constitutive equations are implemented. In general, constitutive equations developed in literature to represent the anisotropy induced by the Mullins effect present analytical forms that are not adapted to finite element implementation. The present paper deals with the development of a constitutive equation that represents the anisotropy of the Mullins effect using only strain invariants. The efficiency of the modeling is first compared to classical homogeneous experimental tests on a filled silicone rubber. Second, the model is tested on a complex structure. In this aim, a silicone holey plate is molded and tested in tension, its local strain fields are evaluated by means of digital image correlation. The experimental results are compared to the simulations from the constitutive equation implemented in a finite element code. Global measurements (i.e. force and displacement) and local strain fields are successfully compared to experimental measurements to validate the model.