Testing elastic slow strain rate

Figure 36 Various types of elastic slow strain rate test.

Between the extremes of viscous fluids and elastic solids are materials that seem to exhibit both traits. These are called viscoelastic materials or memory fluids, and their dual nature becomes most evident when we subject them to time-dependent (unsteady) tests. The three major types of unsteady tests are the so-called relaxation, creep and dynamic tests. In the previous sections, we gave definitions and descriptions for stress, strain and deformation rates. These quantities are now used in defining the various unsteady tests. Thus, in a relaxation test the sample is subjected to a sudden, constant, strain. The stress shoots up in response and then gradually decays ( relaxes ). In the creep test, a sudden stress is applied and held constant. Now the strain picks up quickly and then, while continuing to increase, slows down on its rate of increase. We say the material creeps under the constant stress. In dynamic tests, one confining wall is made to move periodically with respect to another. One monitors both the strain and the stress as a function of time. 

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