Solid‐phase flow behavior of polymers

Abstract

AbstractThe solid‐phase flow behavior of polymers is very important in the mechanical performance and testing of solid polymers and in solid‐phase forming. This paper includes an extensive characterization of the solid‐phase flow curve for a wide range of commercially important polymers. Rigid semicrystalline, ductile semicrystalline, tough ductile amorphous, and two‐phase ductile amorphous resins were studied in both tension and compression. It is clearly shown that semicrystalline polymers normally exhibit a load drop upon yielding due only to geometrical strain softening while the amorphous polymers exhibit yield drops due to material strain softening. New flow equations are given that closely model the observed behavior for all types of materials, over the entire range of strain.