Retardation of necking under biaxial stretching of bilayer plates comprised of an elastomer
layer bonded to a metal layer is studied. Substantial increases in necking limits and
consequent energy absorption can be achieved in metal–elastomer bilayers for both quasi-
static and dynamic stretching. The phenomena is tied to the fact that under stretching the
incremental modulus of the elastomer remains essentially unchanged, or increases, while
the incremental modulus of the metal steadily decreases. The effective incremental modulus …