A viscoelastic–viscoplastic constitutive model for polymer bonded explosives under low impact loading

Viscoplastic work is very important to explosive ignition under impact loading. At present, a large number of constitutive models only consider the viscoelastic and damage behavior of explosives, ignoring the plastic effect under low impact loading. A new viscoelastic–viscoplastic (VE–VP) model was developed and studied to describe the dynamic mechanical behaviors of polymer-bonded explosives (PBXs). The total strain was assumed to be the sum of the viscoelastic (VE) and viscoplastic (VP) components. A generalized Maxwell model was used to determine the VE responses. A VP model was developed by using the classical J(2) rate-dependent model with isotropic hardening. Viscoplastic flow was considered in hyperbolic sinusoidal form. The explicit algorithms of VE model were proposed and assessed by using two different integration methods. The accuracy and efficiency of these two methods are similar at high strain rates. The coupled algorithms of VE–VP model were developed by referring to the classical elasto-viscoplasticity (EVP) provided and using the expression of incremental relaxation modulus. The proposed model was implemented in the ABAQUS using a user-subroutine (VUMAT) to predict the response behaviors of PBX 9501 under low impact loading. Several numerical simulations illustrated the computational efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed methods. The model predictions were compared with experimental data, and reasonable agreement was obtained.