Beatty 9634817 The proposed research is aimed at developing a constitutive model for modeling the Mullins effect, a nonlinear stress softening phenomenon observed in elastomers and soft biological tissues subjected to repeated loading and unloading. Both static and dynamic effects of stress softening will be studied analytically to provide insight to phenomena related to difficulties encountered in use of surgical balloons, to enhance understanding of the material properties of stress softened elastomers and to investigate the Mullins effect in some useful technical applications. The balance of experimental work with modeling and relevance to applied problems is excellent. The research approach is novel and likely to yield results of significant engineering importance. ***
