A fractional transient model for the viscoplastic response of polymers based on a micro-mechanism of free volume distribution

Abstract

In the present work, the nonlinear viscoelastic/viscoplastic response of polymeric materials is described by introducing essential modifications on a model developed in previous works. A constitutive equation of viscoelasticity, based on the transient network theory, is introduced in a more generalized form, which takes into account volume changes during deformation. This time-dependent equation accounts for the nonlinearity and viscoplasticity at small elastic and finite plastic strain regime. The present description was proved to be more flexible, given that it contains a relaxation function that has been derived by considering instead of first order kinetics a fractional derivative that controls the rate of molecular chain detachment from their junctions. Therefore, the new equation has a more global character, appropriate for cases where heavy tails are expected. On the basis of the distributed nature of free volume, a new functional form of the rate of plastic deformation is developed, which is combined with a proper kinematic formulation and leads to the separation of the total strain into the elastic and plastic part. A three-dimensional constitutive equation is then derived for an isotropic, compressible medium. This analysis was proved to be capable of capturing the main aspects of inelastic response as well as the instability stage taking place at the tertiary creep, related to the creep failure.