Modeling and Mechanical Analysis of Fluoropolymer Components

Fluoropol Tners are used in critical applications where failure may have serious safety, environmental, and/or financial consequences. Modeling is an important tool in determining the root cause of the failure and its correction. The modeling of fluoropolymer components, like other polymer materials, continues to evolve in sophistication. This chapter introduces current and developing methodologies for mechanical analysis. These methodologies promise increasingly accurate predictions and analysis of fluoropolymer materials. 

Modeling of fluoropolymers can be based on several approaches, ranging from simple to complex and from phenomenological to those based on physical deformation processes. This chapter does not discuss all of the tools available for analysis. It does, however, provide a comparison and discussion of the values and ranges of applications for numerous analytical tools so an engineer or scientist can make informed decisions about how much effort and sophistication is appropriate for a given analysis. 

As stated in the introduction, there are numerous available techniques for modeling fluoropolymers. These can be divided into analytical and computational techniques, using more or less sophisticated material models within each technique. Table 

1 provides a brief description of different modeling approaches with associated advantages and disadvantages. Each technique can use increasingly complex models for polymer behavior, ranging from linear elastic to involved viscoplastic constitutive models. 

Finite element analysis involves the discretization of a geometry into smaller areas (in two-dimensional problems) or smaller volumes (in three-dimensional analyses). This discretization permits the solution of complicated boundary-value problems involving 

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