Soft materials play an integral part in many aspects of modern life including autonomy, sustainability, and human health, and their accurate modeling is critical to understand their unique properties and functions. Today's finite element analysis packages come with a set of pre-programmed material models, which may exhibit restricted validity in capturing the intricate mechanical behavior of these materials. Regrettably, incorporating a modified or novel material model in a finite element analysis package requires non-trivial in-depth knowledge of tensor algebra, continuum mechanics, and computer programming, making it a complex task that is prone to human error. Here we design a universal material subroutine, which automates the integration of novel constitutive models of varying complexity in non-linear finite element packages, with no additional analytical derivations and algorithmic implementations. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach to seamlessly integrate innovative constituent models from the material point to the structural level through a variety of soft matter case studies: a frontal impact to the brain; reconstructive surgery of the scalp; diastolic loading of arteries and the human heart; and the dynamic closing of the tricuspid valve. Our universal material subroutine empowers all users, not solely experts, to conduct reliable engineering analysis of soft matter systems. We envision that this framework will become an indispensable instrument for continued innovation and discovery within the soft matter community at large.

翻译：软物质在现代生活的诸多方面（包括自主性、可持续性和人类健康）中扮演着不可或缺的角色，而对其精确建模对于理解其独特性质与功能至关重要。当前有限元分析软件包虽内置一系列预设材料模型，但在捕捉这些材料复杂的力学行为时可能存在局限性。遗憾的是，在有限元分析软件包中集成改进或新型材料模型，需要用户具备张量代数、连续介质力学及计算机编程等非平凡的专业知识，导致这一任务复杂且易出现人为失误。本文设计了一种通用材料子程序，该程序可自动将复杂度各异的新型本构模型集成至非线性有限元软件包中，无需额外的解析推导和算法实现。我们通过一系列软物质案例研究（包括：正面撞击脑部、头皮重建手术、动脉及人类心脏的舒张期加载、以及三尖瓣的动态闭合）展示了该方法从材料尺度到结构尺度无缝集成创新本构模型的通用性。我们的通用材料子程序使得所有用户（而不仅是专家）都能对软物质系统进行可靠的工程分析。我们预期该框架将成为整个软物质领域持续创新与探索的不可或缺的工具。