Phenomenological description of strain rate and temperature‐dependent yield stress of PMMA

Abstract

AbstractA constitutive equation to describe the yield behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate (PMMA) is useful not only from the technological point of view, but also for the comprehension of the nonlinear mechanisms acting in the material. In both compression and tension, the yield stress is usually represented as a function of the strain rate at different temperatures. In PMMA and other glassy polymers these curves are related by scaling, that is, they can be matched to form a master curve. Particularly in PMMA the temperature and strain rate dependence of the master curve has been characterized by two different models. The first involves two thermally activated rate processes, one acting only at high strain rates. The second model interprets the yield process as a cooperative movement of several independent structural units, all with the same activation energy. In this article it is demonstrated that only the second phenomenological model is correct because it provides a good fit to the master curve of PMMA both in compression and tension, and verifies the properties of a set of curves related by scaling. Moreover, it is pointed out that the first model leads to severe inconsistencies because it does not consider the nonlinear behavior of PMMA. Finally, the physical parameters obtained (internal stress, activation volume, and enthalpy) are compared with those given in the literature. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.