Creep mode, dynamic mechanical analysis

As discussed iu Section 2.16, dynamic mechanical analysis offers an enhanced means of evaluating the performance of polymeric systems at elevated temperatures. It provides a complete profile of modulus versus temperatures, as well as measurement of mechanical damping. Operating in the creep mode and coupled with the careful use of time-temperature superpositioning, projections can be made regarding the long-term time-dependent behavior under constant load. This provides a much more realistic evaluation of the short- and long-term capabilities of a resin system. 

There are three fundamental test methods for characterization of the viscoelastic behavior of polymers creep, stress relaxation, and dynamic mechanical analysis. Although the primary focus for this chapter is DMA, it is useful first to discuss the fundamentals of creep and stress relaxation, not only because they are conceptually simpler but because most DMA instruments also are capable of operating in either a creep or stress relaxation mode. All three of the methods are related, and numerical techniques are available for calculating creep and stress relaxation data from dynamic mechanical data (Ferry 1980). 

Work by Schapery, Saxena, Wilhams, and others details the analysis of cracks in creeping, strain rate dependent materials, and provides a predictive basis for the apparently brittle nature of FCP in UHMWPE [43-48]. Particularly usefid are the models developed by Schapery and Wilhams, which directly link the intrinsic, constitutive viscoelastic relaxation behavior of the material to the advance of a stable crack tip [46,48]. The power of these models is the predictive nature of the mechanics in relating ECP dynamics to the material s viscoelastic behavior that is eashy measured in a simple one-dimensional creep test The elementary consequences of the models result in the static mode fatigue crack propagation behavior that is observed in UHMWPE, and thus potentially provide a first-principles explanation of the fatigue and fracture behavior by the material. 

---