Abstract
This chapter discusses the large deformations in amorphous polymers. The most striking property of that class of linear amorphous high polymer known as elastomers or rubbers is their capacity to sustain and to recover from large deformations. In such an extension, the stress–strain relation is markedly nonlinear and classical elasticity theory, which is restricted to linear stress-strain relations and infinitesimal strains, is not applicable. In an analogous fashion, melts and concentrated solutions of linear high polymers (thermoplastics) show very marked deviations from Newtonian flow behavior and also exhibit elasticity in that they tend to continue to change their shape after the removal of the external force system causing deformation. In contrast to this, the phenomenological theory provides a general framework for the description of the elastic properties of isotropic materials in finite strains without predicting the detailed behavior of any particular class of materials. The behavior predicted by the kinetic theory must, therefore, be included in the general predictions of the phenomenological theory. The two approaches are, therefore, complementary and are usefully used together in discussing elasticity in elastomers.
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