Viscoelasticity stress relaxation

When a viscoelastic material is subjected to a constant strain, the stress initially induced within it decays in a time-dependent manner. This behavior is called stress relaxation. The viscoelastic stress relaxation behavior is typical of many TPs. The material specimen is a system to which a strain-versus-time profile is applied as input and from which a stress-versus-time profile is obtained as an output. Initially the material is subjected to a constant strain that is maintained for a long period of time. An immediate initial stress gradually approaches zero as time passes. The material responds with an immediate initial stress that decreases with time. When the applied strain is removed, the material responds with an immediate decrease in stress that may result in a change from tensile to compressive stress. The residual stress then gradually approaches zero. 

Viscoelastic stress-relaxation data are usually presented in one of two ways. In the first, the stress manifested as a function of time. Families of such curves may be presented at each temperature of interest. Each curve representing the stress-relaxation behavior of the material at a different level of... 

All PA grades Rapid cooling below Molecular orientations External stresses Cooling stresses Flow-oriented stresses Viscoelastic stress relaxation Residual thermal stresses Anisotropic physical properties Creep and stress relaxation... 

Figure 36 is representative of creep and recovery curves for viscoelastic fluids. Such a curve is obtained when a stress is placed on the specimen and the deformation is monitored as a function of time. During the experiment the stress is removed, and the specimen, if it can, is free to recover. The slope of the linear portion of the creep curve gives the shear rate, and the viscosity is the appHed stress divided by the slope. A steep slope indicates a low viscosity, and a gradual slope a high viscosity. The recovery part of Figure 36 shows that the specimen was viscoelastic because relaxation took place and some of the strain was recovered. A purely viscous material would not have shown any recovery, as shown in Figure 16b. 

Tensile Testing. The most widely used instmment for measuring the viscoelastic properties of soHds is the tensile tester or stress—strain instmment, which extends a sample at constant rate and records the stress. Creep and stress—relaxation can also be measured. Numerous commercial instmments of various sizes and capacities are available. They vary greatiy in terms of automation, from manually operated to completely computer controlled. Some have temperature chambers, which allow measurements over a range of temperatures. Manufacturers include Instron, MTS, Tinius Olsen, Apphed Test Systems, Thwing-Albert, Shimadzu, GRC Instmments, SATEC Systems, Inc., and Monsanto. 

A typical stress—strain curve generated by a tensile tester is shown in Eigure 41. Creep and stress—relaxation results are essentially the same as those described above. Regarding stress—strain diagrams and from the standpoint of measuring viscoelastic properties, the early part of the curve, ie, the region... 

The EMT analysis indicated that the stress relaxes in proportion to the number of bonds removed. The initial linear decrease of E/Eq with is intuitively appealing and is the basis for many linear constitutive theories of polymers. An example is the Doi-Edwards theory of viscoelasticity of linear polymer melts [49] in which... 

Stress Relaxation. Another important consequence of the viscoelastic nature of plastics is that if they are subjected to a particular strain and this strain is held constant it is found that as time progresses, the stress necessary to maintain this strain decreases. This is termed stress relaxation and is of vital importance in the design of gaskets, seals, springs and snap-fit assemblies. This subject will also be considered in greater detail in the next chapter. 

From such curves, however, it would not be possible to determine whether the viscoelasticity is in fact linear. An experiment is needed where the time effect can be isolated. Typical of such experiments is stress relaxation. In this test, the specimen is strained to a specified magnitude at the beginning of the test and held unchanged throughout the experiment, while the monotonically decay-... 

Long time dynamic load involves behaviors such as creep, fatigue, and impact. T vo of the most important types of long-term material behavior are more specifically viscoelastic creep and stress relaxation. Whereas stress-strain behavior usually occurs in less than one or two hours, creep and stress relaxation may continue over the entire life of the structure such as 100,000 hours or more. 

The rate of creep and stress relaxation of TPs increases considerably with temperature those of the TSs (thermoset plastics) remain relatively unaffected up to fairly high temperatures. The rate of viscoelastic creep and stress relaxation at a given temperature may also vary significantly from one TP to an-... 

The Maxwell model is also called Maxwell fluid model. Briefly it is a mechanical model for simple linear viscoelastic behavior that consists of a spring of Young s modulus (E) in series with a dashpot of coefficient of viscosity (ji). It is an isostress model (with stress 5), the strain (f) being the sum of the individual strains in the spring and dashpot. This leads to a differential representation of linear viscoelasticity as d /dt = (l/E)d5/dt + (5/Jl)-This model is useful for the representation of stress relaxation and creep with Newtonian flow analysis. 

Those interested in the theory of viscoelasticity and in the relationship of materials properties to their molecular structure tend to concentrate more on stress-relaxation than... 

Failure can be considered as an actual rupture (stress-rupture) or an excessive creep deformation. Correlation of stress relaxation and creep data has been covered as well as a brief treatment of the equivalent elastic problem. The method of the equivalent elastic problem is of major assistance to designers of plastic products since, by knowing the elastic solution to a problem, the viscoelastic solution can be readily deduced by simply replacing elastic physical constants with viscoelastic constants. 

Creep and stress relation Creep and stress relaxation behavior for plastics are closely related to each other and one can be predicted from knowledge of the other. Therefore, such deformations in plastics can be predicted by the use of standard elastic stress analysis formulas where the elastic constants E and y can be replaced by their viscoelastic equivalents given in Eqs. 2-19 and 2-20. 

In computing ordinary short-term characteristics of plastics, the standard stress analysis formulas may be used. For predicting creep and stress-rupture behavior, the method will vary according to circumstances. In viscoelastic materials, relaxation data can be used in Eqs. 2-16 to 2-20 to predict creep deformations. In other cases the rate theory may be used. 

The time/temperature-dependent change in mechanical properties results from stress relaxation and other viscoelastic phenomena that are typical of these plastics. When the change is an unwanted limitation it is called creep. When the change is skillfully adapted to use in the overall design, it is referred to as plastic memory. 

There are two further related sets of tests that can be used to give information on the mechanical properties of viscoelastic polymers, namely creep and stress relaxation. In a creep test, a constant load is applied to the specimen and the elongation is measured as a function of time. In a stress relaxation test, the specimen is strained quickly to a fixed amount and the stress needed to maintain this strain is also measured as a function of time. 

Stress relaxation tests are alternative ways of measuring the same basic phenomenon in viscoelastic polymers as creep tests, Le. the time-dependent nature of their response to an applied stress. As such, they have also been of value in understanding the behaviour of these materials. The essence of stress relaxation tests is that strain increases with time for a given stress, so that if stress is decreased with time in a controlled manner ( relaxed ), a state... 

It has often been pointed out for a long time that the hysteresis energy given from the hysteresis loop under large extension is too big compared with the viscoelastic dissipation energy. For example, the hysteresis loop given from the stress relaxation is only 20%-30% of that from the stress-strain curve, when both measurements are performed at the same relaxation time and the... 

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