Estimation of creep and recovery behavior of a shape memory polymer

Abstract

The shape recovery and shape fixity properties of shape memory polymers (SMPs), advanced functional materials, were investigated in this study. Although the shape recovery behavior of these polymers has been examined from a viscoelastic point of view, questions remain with regard to quantifying the recovery behavior of SMPs. SMPs can recover their shape after the molding process; this recovery occurs via creep recovery and/or shape recovery; an estimation of SMP recovery requires a good understanding of both processes. In this study, the time–temperature superposition principle was applied to the creep and shape recovery behavior of SMPs. The creep behavior was estimated using an experimentally obtained master curve and time–temperature shift factors. Our estimated results were in good agreement with the experimental data. However, the estimation of the creep recovery with changing temperature below or above the glass transition temperature was not successful due to the lack of consideration of the shape recovery behavior. The time and temperature dependency of the shape recovery were confirmed for creep behavior, using the master curve for the recovery ratio and the corresponding shift factors for shape recovery. The values of the shape recovery shift factors differed from those for the time–temperature shift factors obtained for creep behavior. Therefore, these shape recovery shift factors were used in the estimation of creep and shape recovery behavior using the master curve for the creep tests. The estimated results were closer to the results obtained experimentally. Moreover, our results indicated that the recovery behavior above $T_{\mathrm{g}}$ was dominated by shape recovery as a result of polymer viscoelasticity.