Numerical modeling of a human tissue surrogate SEBS gel under high velocity impacts: investigation of the effect of the strain rate in an elasto-hydrodynamic law

In this paper, an elasto-hydrodynamic constitutive law of the synthetic polymer SEBS gel (styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene) based on the mechanical characterization extracted from the literature was developed implemented in a numerical code, and the effect of the strain rate was investigated. The proposed law was then implemented in an explicit non-linear FEM software to reproduce various loading configurations in order to validate the accuracy of the model. A good agreement exists between the numerical results of the laws and experimental data in the literature. Numerical analysis reveals that the strain-rate-dependence effect is significant in SEBS gel especially for high strain rates. The present study can therefore be used to predict the mechanical behavior of human surrogate materials and guide the design of protective devices such as body armor.