Non-ordinary state-based peridynamic simulation of compressive large deformation and failure in hydrogel materials

Hydrogel materials have broad application prospects in biomedical and other fields. Understanding the large deformation and failure characteristics of hydrogel materials is crucial for their engineering applications. However, simulating the compressive large deformation and failure behavior of hydrogel-like soft materials in three-dimensional scenarios is very challenging. This paper proposed a stabilized three-dimensional non-ordinary state-based peridynamics approach for simulating the compressive large deformation and failure behavior of hydrogel-like soft materials. To control numerical instabilities, a supplementary force state of zero-energy modes is introduced, and a second-order Reduced Polynomial hyperelastic model is applied for constitutive modeling. The computational framework employs an explicit dynamic solution method to simulate three-dimensional large deformation and failure of hyperelastic specimens with complex geometric configurations. Due to its nonlocal theory and mesh-free properties, the proposed method can effectively address the challenges of simulating large deformation and fracture failure of soft materials. First, different zero-energy control methods are validated, followed by an analysis of models with different grid spacings to verify the model's mesh convergence. Finally, compression failure tests of hydrogel spheres under different loading rates are simulated to verify the reliability and simulation performance of the proposed method. In compression failure scenarios, the predicted deformation and load-displacement responses are highly consistent with experimental observations, demonstrating the effectiveness and accuracy of the developed stabilized three-dimensional state-based peridynamics framework in predicting the failure behavior of soft materials under compressive large deformations.