Creep rupture in carbon nanotube-based viscoplastic nanocomposites

Abstract

While the linear viscoelastic characteristics of polymer composites have been extensively studied, the nonlinear creep with progressive damage leading to the ultimate creep rupture in CNT-based viscoplastic nanocomposites still remains a challenging issue. In this paper, a unified approach is presented to study the whole lifetime of creep process including deformation, damage, and creep rupture. First, based on the concept of secant viscosity, a linear viscoelastic comparison composite is introduced to mimic the nonlinear viscoplastic nanocomposite, with the linear part further formulated in the Laplace transformed domain. Then, both progressive degradation of the interphase and creep damage of the polymer matrix are presented. A joint field-fluctuation method and work-rate equivalence is subsequently utilized to calculate the effective Mises stress and hydrostatic stress of the viscoplastic matrix. The principle of irreversible thermodynamics is then invoked to derive the thermodynamic driving force to characterize the evolution of creep damage and rupture process. After the theory is developed, it is demonstrated that the predicted effective creep strains of multi-walled CNT/polypropylene nanocomposites are calibrated by the experiments spanning over the whole three stages of primary creep, secondary creep, and tertiary creep. Both creep rupture time and rupture strain of the overall nanocomposite are found to increase with CNT volume concentration. It is concluded that population of CNT nanofillers can remarkably enhance the creep rupture resistance of CNT/polymer viscoplastic nanocomposites.