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Cyclic deformation behavior of an epoxy polymer. Part I: Experimental investigation
Author(s) -
Shen Xinghe,
Xia Zihui,
Ellyin Fernand
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.20251
Subject(s) - materials science , viscoelasticity , composite material , cyclic stress , thermosetting polymer , stress relaxation , epoxy , stress (linguistics) , compression (physics) , deformation (meteorology) , polymer , tension (geology) , strain rate , creep , philosophy , linguistics
A series of uniaxial cyclic tests were carried out on solid cylindrical specimens of an epoxy resin, Epon 826/Epi‐Cure Curing Agent 9551. The focus of the study was to investigate time‐dependent viscoelastic behavior of this thermosetting polymer material under cyclic loading and to develop a constitutive model with the capabilities to simulate the observed deformation response. The tests include stress‐controlled or strain‐controlled cyclic loading with/without mean stress or mean strain at various amplitudes and loading rates. It was found that the cyclic stress‐strain response of this material is amplitude‐dependent and rate‐dependent, and the response to axial tension is different from that in compression. The stress‐strain loops exhibit more pronounced nonlinearity with high amplitudes or low loading rates. For stress‐controlled cyclic loading with mean stress, ratcheting strain is accumulated, which is of viscoelastic nature, and this is confirmed by its full recovery after load removal. For strain‐controlled cyclic loading with mean strain, the mean stress relaxation occurs, which contributes to the observed longer life in comparison to the stress‐controlled cyclic loading with mean stress. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:2240–2246, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.