Experimental investigation on electro-mechanically coupled cyclic deformation of laterally constrained dielectric elastomer

A series of electro-mechanically coupled cyclic tests at large deformation are carried out to characterize the cyclic deformation of a laterally constrained dielectric elastomer (DE) in this work. In the strain-controlled cyclic tests of the dielectric elastomer (e.g., VHB 4910 DE) with a constant or cyclic voltage, cyclic stress softening occurs and is influenced by the phase-angle difference between the applied cyclic strain and cyclic voltage. In the stress-controlled cyclic tests of VHB 4910 DE with a constant or cyclic voltage, ratchetting (a cyclic accumulation of inelastic strain) takes place; the ratchetting strain is considerably enhanced by applying higher voltage level, higher stress level and lower stress rate, and is also affected by the phase-angle difference between the applied cyclic stress and cyclic voltage. Moreover, the remarkable recovery of residual strain after the cyclic tests demonstrates that the cyclic stress softening and ratchetting of VHB 4910 DE mainly stem from the viscoelasticity. The comprehensive experimental observations are very useful to develop, calibrate and validate an electro-mechanically coupled constitutive model of dielectric elastomers.     

Multiaxial ratcheting behavior of PTFE at room temperature

A series of multiaxial ratcheting experiments have been performed on polyteterafluoroethylene (PTFE) solid cylindrical specimens. All the tests were conducted under cyclic shear strain with a constant axial stress at room temperature. The effects of axial stress, shear strain range, shear strain rate and their histories on the ratcheting behavior of PTFE were studied. It is shown that the ratcheting strain depends on the constant axial stress, cyclic shear strain range and shear strain rate. The ratcheting strain increases more rapidly as the constant axial stress or shear strain range become larger, or the shear strain rate is reduced. Furthermore, the loading histories also play an important role in the progress of ratcheting. The prior cycling with higher axial stress, larger strain range or lower strain rate greatly restrains ratcheting strain of subsequent cycling at lower strains. Such phenomenon is due to the enhancement of the material deformation resistance caused by the prior loadings.     

Effects of fabric architectures on mechanical and damage behaviors in carbon/epoxy woven composites under multiaxial stress states

The mechanical properties and damage evolutions of carbon/epoxy woven fabric composites with three different fabric architectures, including one plain weave and two twill weave patterns, are experimentally investigated under multiaxial stress states. In particular, the effects of weave patterns are investigated by monotonic and cyclic off-axis tension tests. Both elastic modulus and strength degrade remarkably with increasing off-axis loading angle, while Poisson's ratio is much higher than that measured from on-axis tests and increases with loading strain gradually. Different fabric architectures show limited effects on the modulus and strength under multiaxial stress states, and they are well predicted by transformation equation and Tsai-Wu failure criteria, respectively. However, significantly different failure behaviors are observed in three fabric composites, and microstructure observation shows that fabric architecture affects the stress concentration and the damage development. Smaller crimp ratio and compacted structure postpone the damage development but result in more abrupt failure under multiaxial stress states.     

A test procedure for separating viscous recovery and accumulated unrecoverable deformation of polymer under cyclic loading

After uniaxial tension and creep tests, asymmetric stress cycle tests have been performed on two polycarbonate (PC) materials with different molecular weights at room temperature. The effects of stress level (mean stress and stress amplitude) and time-dependent factors (stress rate and peak hold time) on ratcheting were studied. To separate the contributions of viscous recovery and accumulated unrecoverable deformation, a new test procedure has been proposed and performed on polycarbonate. The results demonstrate that the proposed test procedure is suitable for separating the viscous recovery and accumulated unrecoverable deformation. The study clearly shows that, for PC, both the viscous recovery and the accumulated unrecoverable deformation cannot be neglected for cyclic loading; previous viscous deformation has significant influence on the following cyclic accumulated deformation.     

Uniaxial ratcheting behavior of polytetrafluoroethylene at elevated temperature

A series of uniaxial ratcheting experiments has been carried out on cold compaction polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) specimens. All the tests were performed under stress control at elevated temperature. The effects of mean stress, stress amplitude, applied temperature and their histories on the ratcheting behavior of PTFE were studied. It is shown that, as the applied temperature was raised, the elastic modulus of PTFE declined rapidly. The ratcheting strain increased as the mean stress, stress amplitude and temperature increased. Especially, when the temperature was over 100 °C, the ratcheting strain accumulated rapidly. Furthermore, the loading histories also play an important role in the progress of ratcheting. Previous cycling with higher mean stress and stress amplitude greatly restrains ratcheting strain of subsequent cycling at lower ones. Such a phenomenon is due to the enhancement of the material deformation resistance caused by the previous loadings. As the applied temperature changes, the ratcheting strain still accumulates along the direction of mean stress.     

Compressive ratcheting effect of expanded PTFE considering multiple load paths

Uniaxial stress-controlled ratcheting behaviors of expanded PTFE (ePTFE) under cyclic compressive loads were tested. The effects of temperature, stress rate and mean stress on the ratcheting behaviors of ePTFE considering multiple load paths were discussed in detail. Results present that the steady ratcheting strain is rate-independent when the stress rate is less than about 0.1 MPa/s, while it approximately linearly decreases with increasing the stress rate for greater stress rate. Additionally, the steady ratcheting is temperature-independent when the temperature is greater than about 150 °C, but it nearly linearly increases with enhancing the temperature for lower temperature. Especially, the stress rate almost has little effect on the ratcheting strain of ePTFE at 200 °C. Moreover, the accumulated ratcheting strain enhances rapidly in about the first 80 cycles, and subsequently tends to shakedown in the subsequent cycles for each load path. Furthermore, if a higher stress is used in the prior cycling, the greater ratcheting strain may be produced, and a negative ratcheting strain rate can be obtained in the subsequent cycling with lower mean stress due to the greater strain hardening and deformation resistance produced by the previous higher stress.     

Temperature-dependent ratcheting of PTFE gaskets under cyclic compressive loads with small stress amplitude

Uniaxial stress-controlled ratcheting experiments on PTFE gaskets under cyclic compressive loads with small stress amplitude were performed. The effect of temperature on the deformation behavior was considered. Results showed that the compressive modulus decreases rapidly when the temperature increases from 100 °C to 200 °C. Compressive ratcheting deformation with cycles increase significantly with the increases of temperature. The ratcheting deformations at 100 °C, 150 °C and 200 °C are nearly two, three and five times that at room temperature, respectively. Most of ratcheting deformation mainly occurs during the first 20 cycles because the subsequent ratcheting rate and strain range are small and much less than those in the previous cycles. The accumulated deformation under cyclic loads with small stress amplitude is relatively approach to the static compressive creep with the same peak stress. Therefore, the accumulated deformation with time of PTFE gaskets obtained by cyclic compression with small stress amplitude can be estimated by the corresponding static creep deformation with good accuracy under the approximate stress rate and the same temperature, especially at room temperature.     

Influence of loading frequency on the fatigue behaviour of coir fibre reinforced PP composite

The influence of loading frequency on the fatigue behaviour of a coir fibre reinforced polypropylene (PP) composite was studied. The mechanical behaviour was assessed through monotonic tensile and flexural tests, followed by cyclic bending fatigue tests employing a new specimen geometry, with loading frequencies ranging from 5 to 35 Hz. Results revealed that higher strain rates during monotonic loading lead to higher flexural strength, and higher loading frequencies in cyclic tests promote reduction in fatigue life. Fractographic examination showed that one of the reasons for reduced fatigue life under higher loading frequencies might be related to increased heat generation by hysteresis, leading to a fatigue damage mechanism governed by temperature effects. The results, thus, encourage the development of good practices regarding test frequencies in order to be able to uncouple thermal and mechanical effects and provide relevant data for structural integrity assessments.     

Evolution of the dynamic fatigue failure of the adhesion between rubber and polymer cords

The evolution of the dynamic fatigue of the adhesion in a tire carcass compound reinforced by polymer cords under cyclic loading was investigated using a self-developed fatigue test. The characteristic curves are used to explain the evolution of the fatigue failure of the adhesion between rubber and polymer cords. Three stages are identified during the evolution of the dynamic fatigue. Under stress-controlled mode by MTS-ETS (Mechanical Testing&Simulation–Elastomer Testing System), an equation to forecast the adhesion life of rubber/polymer cords composites has been developed. Under strain-controlled mode by MTS, a strain threshold value (87.8%) separating the evolution into two parts was identified. The effects of frequency on the adhesion were also investigated and suggest that, within the experimental range, regardless of the frequency, the adhesion life at a given stress amplitude is constant.     

Mechanical properties of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) foils in use for neutrino detector project

The use of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) foils as engineering materials for aerospace, solar thermal collector and neutrino detector applications has attracted considerable attention in recent decades. Mechanical properties are indispensable for analyzing corresponding structural behavior to meet the demands of safety and serviceability. In this paper, uniaxial tensile tests taking into account loading speeds, uniaxial tensile cyclic tests in terms of stress amplitude and loading cycles and creep tests considering loading stress and time were carried out to characterize mechanical properties. For uniaxial tensile properties, elastic modulus, yield stress, breaking strength and elongation were analyzed in detail. It is found that these mechanical properties except breaking elongation increased with loading speeds and that mechanical properties obtained in transverse direction were more sensitive than those obtained in machine direction. For cyclic properties, elastic modulus and ratcheting strain tended to be stable after certain cycles, demonstrating that cyclic elastic moduli were more suitable for analyzing structural behavior than those obtained in uniaxial tensile experiments. For creep properties, apparent strain at 6 MPa suggested that special attention was necessary for analyzing structural behavior if maximum stress was larger than 6 MPa. In general, this study could provide useful observations and values for understanding mechanical properties of FEP foils.     

Analysis of the cyclic tensile behaviour of an elasto-viscoplastic polyamide

The present paper is concerned with the experimental and theoretical investigation of the progressive accumulation of inelastic deformation observed in cyclic tension tests performed on a particular polyamide. The elastic properties are not strongly affected by the strain rate, but the strain hardening induced by the plastic deformation is rate-dependent. Thus, the material behaviour is elasto-viscoplastic rather than viscoelastic or elasto-plastic. For the polymer studied in this paper, the kinematic hardening is much more significant than the isotropic hardening, and a negative plastic strain rate may occur even with a positive stress. The kinematic hardening is strongly dependent, not only on the accumulated plastic strain, but also on the loading rate. An elasto-viscoplastic mechanical model able to describe the cyclic inelastic behaviour for an arbitrary loading history is proposed. All parameters that arise in the theory are identified experimentally. The preliminary theoretical results concerning the modelling of cyclic load-unload tests are in good agreement with the experiments.     

Rate-dependent nonlinear constitutive equation of polypropylene

In order to investigate the viscoelastic-plastic properties of polymer solids and construct a constitutive equation for them, torsional tests were performed on polypropylene (PP) hollow cylinders. Testing was conducted under constant strain rate, abrupt change of strain rate, stress relaxation, creep, and cyclic loading conditions. The experimental data were compared with the numerical results derived from an overstress model. It is shown that the overstress theory explains the viscoelastic-plastic properties of PP well, provided that the current strain is not below the maximum previous strain.     

Accelerated ratcheting testing of polycarbonate using the time-temperature-stress equivalence method

The long-term performance of polymers under cyclic loading is important for safety assessments in engineering applications. The deformation process under the cyclic loading can be accelerated through use of temperature and stress. As for asymmetric cyclic loading, so called ratcheting, a time-temperature-stress (TTS) equivalence method in which all the parameters have clear physical meanings and can be determined experimentally, was proposed to predict the long-term cyclic loading behavior for polycarbonate using short-term data. Taking into consideration the effects of both the mean stress and the stress amplitude, the ratcheting compliance was defined and its evolution function was also provided. Next, the TTS equivalence method was validated using the long-term ratcheting test results for the polycarbonate. Time, temperature, and stress do show equivalent effects on long-term ratcheting of polycarbonate. Using the proposed method, time and cost can be dramatically saved for the assessment of the long-term cyclic loading performance of polycarbonate.     

Fading memory of deformation history in carbon black-filled thermoplastic elastomers

Observations are reported on a carbon black–reinforced thermoplastic elastomer in multistep uniaxial tensile cyclic tests with a mixed deformation program (oscillations between maximum elongation ratios k_max and various minimum stresses σ_min with k_max monotonically increasing with number of cycles n). Fading memory of deformation history is demonstrated: when specimens are subjected to two loading programs that differ along the first n −1 cycles of deformation and coincide afterwards, their stress–strain diagrams become identical starting from the nth cycle. A constitutive model is developed in cyclic viscoplasticity with finite deformations, and its adjustable parameters are found by fitting the observations. Ability of the stress–strain relations to describe the fading memory phenomenon and to predict the mechanical response of polymer composites in multi-step cyclic tests with large strains is confirmed by numerical simulation.     

On the large strain deformation behavior of silicone-based elastomers for biomedical applications

The results of a comprehensive mechanical analysis of five silicone-based elastomers are presented. Large strain monotonic tests were performed under uniaxial, strip biaxial and equi-biaxial stress states. Based on the multiaxial experimental data, hyperelastic constitutive models were determined for each material. The small strain elastic modulus ranges from 49 kPa to 1.5 MPa, and the materials show different degrees of non-linearity of their stress-strain response. Data on the time and history dependence allow determining the deviation from the behavior predicted using a non-dissipative hyperelastic constitutive model. Next to representing a guideline for a comprehensive characterization of highly deformable materials, the present results provide data which can be used for the selection of an appropriate material, depending on the specific application. The corresponding models can be used to simulate the performance of each elastomer in applications involving large strains and multiaxial loading states.     

FEM simulation of polymeric foam with random pore structure: Uniaxial compression with loading rate effect

This study establishes FEM modeling for compressive deformation behavior of polymeric foams with different loading rates. The polymeric foam used in this study was made from polypropylene (the base matrix of the polymer) with porosity of about 95%. The pore size and shape were randomly distributed in the foam. The X-ray CT method was first conducted to observe the microstructure, the geometric feature of which was reproduced in the FEM model. Uniaxial compression tests with different loading speeds were carried out to investigate an effect of loading rate (strain rate) dependency on the deformation behavior. By using the X-ray CT method, in situ observation of microscopic deformation was carried out. Furthermore, FEM computations were carried out to simulate macroscopic and microscopic deformation behaviors. The random porous structure was modeled using Surface Evolver. The elastoplastic property with strain rate dependency was used in this model. The established FEM framework may be useful for a porous polymer with a random pore structure and for deformation modeling with strain rate effect.     

On the evolution of the viscoelastic properties and its microstructural/chemical origin in filled NBR subjected to coupled thermal and mechanical loads

This study deals with the effect of coupled thermal and cyclic mechanical loadings on the viscoelastic response of carbon black filled nitrile rubber. For this purpose, cyclic loading tests were performed at different temperatures by means of Dynamic Mechanical and Thermal Analysis (DMTA). The type and level of the thermomechanical loadings applied were chosen in order to determine the relative contribution of each of the mechanical and thermal loadings (and their coupling) to the viscoelastic response during the cyclic tests. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses were also carried out to track the change in the chemical structure corresponding to the evolution in the viscoelastic response. First, results obtained show that due to the crosslink increase, the storage modulus increases with the number of cycles. It is also observed that temperature amplifies this phenomenon. Second, the cyclic mechanical loading is found to significantly amplify the effect of temperature.     

Experimental analysis of the effect of carbon nanoparticles with different geometry on the appearance of anisotropy of mechanical properties in elastomeric composites

The paper presents studies of the properties of elastomeric materials based on the solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR) filled with nanoparticles of different geometry – grainy (nanodiamonds), layered (graphene nanoplates) and fibrous (nanotubes). Despite the introduction of a small amount of fillers, the significant strengthening of the matrix is exhibited. Of particular interest is the behavior of the nanodiamond-filled elastomer composite, for which a double increase in rupture stress with an increase in rupture strain is observed at the filler volume fraction approximately equal to 2%. The structure of composites is investigated by optical and atomic force microscopy. In addition to standard mechanical testing, experiments of successive cyclic loading along each of two mutually perpendicular axes of plane elastomeric samples were conducted with use of a Zwick 4-vector test stand (biaxial testing machine). The phenomenon of induced anisotropy in materials is analyzed. A hypothesis to explain its manifestation is suggested.     

连续碳纤维增强的聚芳醚酮在Ⅰ型循环载荷下的层间破坏

用双悬臂梁(DCB)试件研究了连续碳纤维增强的聚芳醚酮复合材料(CF/PEK-C),在Ⅰ型循环载荷作用下的层间裂纹扩展行为.循环载荷采用载荷控制模式,最小载荷与最大载荷之比为0.5.在疲劳试验中,仍然发现有“阻力曲线”现象存在.层间裂纹扩展速率用指数定律与相应的应变能释放速率联系起来,并对结果进行了讨论.     

Uniaxial ratcheting behavior of hygrothermal aging anisotropic conductive adhesive film

A series of uniaxial ratcheting experiments on anisotropic conductive adhesive film (ACF) were conducted under stress-control at elevated temperature using a DMA-Q800. The ratcheting behavior of ACF specimens with different hygrothermal aging times was investigated at room temperature and 120 °C. The effects of loading rate, mean stress and stress amplitude on the ratcheting behavior of unaged and aged specimens were compared. The results show that the ratcheting strains of aged specimens are smaller than those of unaged specimens under the same experimental conditions. The cycling stability of aged specimens is increased by hygrothermal aging. At room temperature, with the increase of aging time, the ratcheting strains of aged specimens increase with hygrothermal aging time when it is less than or equal to 96 h but, however, decrease when it exceeds 96 h. At 120 °C the ratcheting strains of ACF only decrease with the increase of hygrothermal aging time. Additionally, the effects of loading rate, mean stress and stress amplitude on the ratcheting behavior of unaged and aged ACF are different and their effects are weakened by hygrothermal aging.