A new approach to the description of the deformation kinetics and relaxation of mechanical properties of oriented polymers

The reduction of Young's modulus and stress as well as the creep rate of highly oriented polymers with different chemical structure has been investigated. The kinetics of these processes are described by Arrhenius-type equations having the same activation parameters. The deformation and relaxation processes were assumed identical in their physical nature and functions of thermal fluctuation. Evidence for this assumption was obtained by investigating spectroscopically excited extended interatomic bonds of the macromolecules. The generation of excited bonds was found to determine the kinetics of these macroscopic processes in polymers.