{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.014214641080312722, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.868292682926829, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Variable-Order Fractional Constitutive Model to Characterize the Rate-Dependent Mechanical Behavior of Soft Materials

Building an accurate constitutive model for soft materials is essential for better understanding its rate-dependent deformation characteristics and improving the design of soft material devices. To establish a concise constitutive model with few parameters and clear physical meaning, a variable-order fractional model is proposed to accurately describe and predict the rate-dependent mechanical behavior of soft materials. In this work, the discrete variable-order fractional operator enables the predicted stress response to be entirely consistent with the whole stress history and the fractional order’s path-dependent values. The proposed model is further implemented in a numerical form and applied to predict several typical soft materials’ tensile and compressive deformation behavior. Our research indicates that the proposed variable-order fractional constitutive model is capable of predicting the nonlinear rate-dependent mechanical behavior of soft materials with high accuracy and more convinced reliability in comparison with the existing fractional models, where the fractional order contains a constant initial order to depict the initial elastic response and a linear variable-order function to account for the strain hardening behavior after acrossing the yield point.