Plastic behaviour of an epoxy polymer under cyclic tension

• Published in: Polymer testing Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: da Costa Mattos, Heraldo S., Martins, Silvana de Abreu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kindlington Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Cyclic tensile tests; Dissipation; Elasto-plasticity; Epoxy polymer; Exact sciences and technology; Fatigue (materials); Hysteresis; Kinematics; Mathematical models; Modelling; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; Plastic deformation; Properties and characterization; Ratcheting; Rheology and viscoelasticity; Shakedown; Strain rate; Tensile tests; Elasto-plasticity; Ratcheting; Modelling; Shakedown; Epoxy polymer; Cyclic tensile tests; Viscoelasticity; Ratchetting; Strain rate sensitivity; Epoxy resin; Mechanical properties; Tensile property; Elastoviscoplasticity; Experimental study; Modeling; Phenomenological model; Cyclic load; Plasticity; Numerical simulation; Rheological properties
• ISSN: 0142-9418; 1873-2348
• DOI: 10.1016/j.polymertesting.2012.08.009

The present paper is concerned with the experimental investigation of the progressive accumulation of deformation observed in cyclic tension tests performed on an epoxy polymer. The strain rate dependency is almost negligible and the material behaviour is elastic-plastic rather than elastic-viscoplastic or viscoelastic. Under cyclic loading and unloading, this polymer exhibits hysteresis (a phase lag), which leads to dissipation of mechanical energy and to the accumulation of cyclic plastic deformation. It is verified experimentally that this phenomenon is essentially due to kinematic hardening. Preliminary ideas for an elastic-plastic phenomenological model able to describe the plastic cyclic behaviour of this epoxy polymer are also presented.