Prediction of deformation behavior of glassy polymers based on molecular chain network model

Abstract

In order to develop a constitutive equation for polymeric materials covering a wide class of deformation processes a three-dimensional nonaffine model has been developed by adopting the non-Gaussian network theory with the generalized Argon double-kink model of intermolecular resistance. A phenomenological relation between the non-Gaussian molecular chain network structure and entanglement of chains is formulated and a simple evolutional equation of the number of entanglements of chains during the deformation process is developed. The validity of the proposed constitutive equation has been proven through comparison between the predicted results and experimental results. Furthermore, its application to the deformation analysis of circular polymeric bars under tension has been discussed