Compression-induced anisotropy

Wallace [15], [16] gives details on effects of nonlinear material behavior and compression-induced anisotropy in initially isotropic materials for weak shocks, and Johnson et ai. [17] give results for infinitesimal compression of initially anisotropic single crystals, but the forms of the equations are the same as for (7.10)-(7.11). From these results it is easy to see where the micromechanical effects of rate-dependent plastic flow are included in the analysis the micromechanics (through the mesoscale variables and n) is contained in the term y, as given by (7.1). 

Sharma (90) has examined the fracture behavior of aluminum-filled elastomers using the biaxial hollow cylinder test mentioned earlier (Figure 26). Biaxial tension and tension-compression tests showed considerable stress-induced anisotropy, and comparison of fracture data with various failure theories showed no generally applicable criterion at the strain rates and stress ratios studied. Sharma and Lim (91) conducted fracture studies of an unfilled binder material for five uniaxial and biaxial stress fields at four values of stress rate. Fracture behavior was characterized by a failure envelope obtained by plotting the octahedral shear stress against octahedral shear strain at fracture. This material exhibited neo-Hookean behavior in uniaxial tension, but it is highly unlikely that such behavior would carry over into filled systems. 

Interesting ripples were first seen in the interaction-induced absorption spectra of compressed nitrogen [107] and later also of oxygen and in various gas mixtures in the infrared [73, 78, 84]. It has been suggested that these weak, roughly sinusoidal structures that are superimposed with the quasi-continuous, induced background arise possibly from line mixing, due to the anisotropy of... 

Correspondingly, low-symmetry atomic or molecular arrangements comprising different types of chemical bonds normally exhibit pronounced anisotropy of the compressibility. Structural reorganizations due to pressure-induced phase transitions are associated with discontinuous volume decreases and normally increasing coordination numbers. These structural changes not only modify the coordination environment in the crystal structure but frequently also the electronic properties of the solid. 

Orientational order plays an important role in solid polymers. It is often induced by industrial processing, for example in fibers and injection- or compression-modulated parts. In polymers with liquid-crystalline properties of the melt or solution, the anisotropies generated by the flow pattern are particularly pronounced. In order to improve the mechanical properties of polymer fibers or films, the degree of orientation is intentionally enhanced by drawing. At the same time, anisotropy of mechanical properties can result in low tolerance to unfavourably directed loads. In many liquid-crystalline polymers, in the mesophase near the transition to the isotropic phase, electric or magnetic fields can induce macroscopic orientational order [1]. Natural polymers such as silk protein fibers, which are biosynthesized and spun under biological condition, also have good mechanical properties because of their ordered structure [2]. 

Fig. 2. Shock heating of a molecular crystal depends on the direction of shock propagation. The calculated anisotropy of shock-induced heating in a naphthalene crystal shows that c-axis compression leads to a smaller temperature rise than the a-axis or fc-axis, because the crystal is less comnressible along c. Reproduced from ref. 1201.

The orientation of polydomain polymers by mechanical or viscous flow fields can be achieved easiest if a macroscopic chain anisotropy that coincides with the local symmetry of the LC phase structure is induced and fixed by chemical crosslinking. Eor nematic or Sa main chain polymers which locally show a prolate (see Sect. 3) chain anisotropy, a uniaxial deformation leads to a globally prolate chain conformation. If the chain conformation of the LC polymer is locally oblate, a globally oblate chain conformation can be induced by either uniaxial compression or -equivalently - biaxial stretching of the sample (Lig. 9). 

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