Solution Behavior near Envelopes of Characteristics for Certain Constitutive Equations Used in the Mechanics of Polymers.

The present paper deals with plane strain deformation of incompressible polymers that obey quite a general pressure-dependent yield criterion. In general, the system of equations can be hyperbolic, parabolic, or elliptic. However, attention is concentrated on the hyperbolic regime and on the behavior of solutions near frictional interfaces, assuming that the regime of sliding occurs only if the friction surface coincides with an envelope of stress characteristics. The main reason for studying the behavior of solutions in the vicinity of envelopes of characteristics is that the solution cannot be extended beyond the envelope. This research is also motivated by available results in metal plasticity that the velocity field is singular near envelopes of characteristics (some space derivatives of velocity components approach infinity). In contrast to metal plasticity, it is shown that in the case of the material models adopted, all derivatives of velocity components are bounded but some derivatives of stress components approach infinity near the envelopes of stress characteristics. The exact asymptotic expansion of stress components is found. It is believed that this result is useful for developing numerical codes that should account for the singular behavior of the stress field.