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Thermoforming process of amorphous polymeric sheets: Modeling and finite element simulations
Author(s) -
Makradi A.,
Belouettar S.,
Ahzi S.,
Puissant S.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.26869
Subject(s) - thermoforming , materials science , amorphous solid , composite material , mold , viscoplasticity , glass transition , polymer , finite element method , constitutive equation , thermodynamics , crystallography , chemistry , physics
A temperature and strain rate dependent model for the thermoforming process of amorphous polymer materials is proposed. The polymeric sheet is heated at a temperature above the glass transition temperature then deformed to take the mold shape by the means of an applied pressure. The applied process temperature is taken uniform throughout the sheet and its variation is due only to the adiabatic heating. The behavior of the polymeric material is described by a micromechanically‐based elastic‐viscoplastic model. The simulations are conducted for the poly(methyl methacrylate) using the finite element method. The polymer sheet thickness and the orientation of the polymer molecular chains show an important dependence on the process temperature, the applied pressure profile, and the contact forces with the mold surface. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007