Constitutive modelling of glassy polymers considering shear plasticity and craze yielding

Abstract

The inelastic behaviour of thermoplastic polymers below the glass transition temperature can involve shear plasticity or crazing, depending on the strain rate and temperature. Shear plasticity is driven by local shear stresses and is essentially volume preserving. In contrast, crazing is a failure phenomenon occurring under tension and causes significant volume change. In some cases, crazing can also result in large inelastic deformations at macroscopic scale, referred to as craze yielding. The aim of this study is to propose a thermodynamically-consistent constitutive framework that accounts for both shear plasticity and craze yielding in glassy polymers. The main assumption is that shear plasticity and craze yielding occur exclusively from each other, depending on the local stress state. Both are modelled as thermally-activated processes with different activation stresses and flow rules. The theory is validated against experimental data for polylactic acid (PLA). Our model is capable of reproducing the stress–strain response including yielding, softening, and drawing under both shear plasticity and craze yielding, and also accurately predicts the volumetric deformation under tension. In particular, our simulations well capture the interesting phenomenon that craze yielding stabilises localised deformations and prevents necking. Our model can also simulate complex scenarios where both mechanisms occur simultaneously at different locations of the specimen.