Creep stability of polymer rods

The author examines the problem of the buckling of a hinger rod of rigid homogeneous polymer material under constant load. The results of an experimental investigation are presented. The theoretical calculations are based on the nonlinear generalized Maxwell equation. A numerical solution has been obtained on a computer. The results of this solution are compared with the experimental data. An analytic solution that makes it possible to estimate certain limiting values is obtained for the linearized equation.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 145–150, 1968     

Investigation of the effect of polymer coatings on wear under vibrational loads

The process of friction and wear in the presence of vibration has been investigated on the range of relatively high loads and vibration amplitudes. It is shown that the use of Teflon-based composites completely eliminates damage to the contact surfaces as a result of fretting corrosion.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 6, pp. 1029–1035, November–December, 1973.     

Creep in unidirectionally reinforced polymer composites

Conclusions We have explored here the possibilities of predicting the permanent creep in unidirectionally reinforced polymer composite materials from the results of accelerated testing of their components. The mutually independent components of the viscoelastic compliance tensor under conditions of creep have been calculated with the aid of the Laplace transformation and an earlier verified variant of determining the mean elastic characteristics of a composite material, whereupon the originals of the sought functions have been obtained by a numerical inverse Laplace transformation. Experiments were performed with unidirectionally reinforced materials, a glass-plastic, an organoplastic, a carbon-plastic, and a boroplastic, all tested in tension in the direction of fiber reinforcement and in the transverse direction, also in longitudinal shear. The possibilities of predicting the creep in composite materials with the aid of functions characterizing the viscoelastic compliance of the binder and obtained by the method of temperature-time analogy have been confirmed twofold: by long-duration (up to 3 yr) control tests performed on the given materials and by control calculation of the creep in these composite materials from results of direct long-duration (up to 5 yr) tests performed on specimens of the binder.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 2, pp. 215–223, March–April, 1984.     

Stability analysis of nonlinear dynamic systems with slowly and periodically varying delay

On the basis of the geometric singular perturbation theory and the theory of delayed Hopf bifurcation in slow–fast systems with delay, the stability of nonlinear systems with slowly and periodically varying delay is investigated in this paper. Sufficient conditions ensuring asymptotic stability of those systems are obtained. Especially, though a time-varying delay usually increases complexity in the analysis of system dynamics and it usually deteriorates system stability as well, the study indicates that under certain conditions, the stability of the systems with a time-invariant delay only can be improved by incorporating a slowly and periodically varying part into the constant delay. Two illustrative examples are given to validate the analytical results.     

Creep in materials subject to aging

A strain-hardening theory is used in an attempt to describe the creep in aging materials. Samples of commercial celluloid are tested for uniaxial creep under tension and the results are compared with the corresponding theoretical relations. The latter are found to be in fairly good agreement with the test results.Mekhanika polimerov, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 61–64, 1965     

Strip saturation model solution for a piezoelectric plate by linearly varying electrical loads under mode-I conditions

A strip saturation model solution is obtained for a poled cracked piezoelectric ceramic plate. The plate is cut along a straight finite hair line crack whose rims are perpendicular to the poling axis of the plate. A mechanical load and an electric field applied open the rims of the crack and, as a result, saturation zones develop ahead of its tips. To arrest the crack from further opening, a linearly varying saturation limit normal electrical displacement is prescribed on rims of the saturation zones. The technique of complex variables is used to obtain the solution to the problem. A case study is presented for PZT-4, PZT-5, and PZT-7 ceramics. Russian translation published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 85–92, January–February, 2009.     

Creep of polymer concrete in the nonlinear region

Two polyester-based polymer concretes with various volume content of diabase as an extender and aggregate are tested in creep under compression at different stress levels. The phenomenological and structural approaches are both used to analyze the experimental data. Common features of changes in the instantaneous and creep compliances are clarified, and a phenomenological creep model which accounts for the changes in the instantaneous compliance and in the retardation spectrum depending on the stress level is developed. It is shown that the model can be used to describe the experimental results of stress relaxation and creep under repeated loading. Modeling of the composite structure and subsequent solution of the optimization problem confirm the possibility of the existence of an interphase layer more compliant than the binder. A direct correlation between the interphase volume content and the instantaneous compliance of the composite is revealed. It is found that the distinction in nonlinearity of the viscoelastic behavior of the two polymer concretes under investigation can be due to the difference in their porosity. Submitted to the 11th International Conference on Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, June 11–15, 2000.) Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 147–164, 2000.     

Estimation of the long-term strength of polymer materials under arbitrary loading histories

A nonlinear version of the phenomenological theory of long-term strength of polymer materials (viscoelastic bodies) is proposed. It is based on the introduction of a function accounting for the damage accumulation connected with changes in the load intensity. The form of this function may be determined from the results of testing the material with a load changing with time in a certain way, for instance, periodically. As a parameter, the function contains the rate of the changing load or the frequency for periodic loads. For a quasi-isotropic material, the basic relationships of the theory proposed are generalized to the case of combined stresses. The durability (failure time) calculations of the material based on this theory are compared with experimental data for a number of polymer and composite materials in a wide range of loading modes. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 585–594, September–October, 1999.     

Vibrocreep of polymer materials

The vibrocreep of low-density polyethylene (LDP) in uniaxial tension has been investigated in the presence of vibration in the direction of action of the constant load. The material was deformed under nonisothermal conditions owing to heating caused by the dissipation of vibrational energy. Superimposing vibrations leads to a considerable increase in creep rate. It is shown that this increase can not be explained solely in terms of the rise in temperature due to heating of the material; there is also a dynamic creep acceleration effect. Avariant of the vibrocreep approximation with allowance for the dynamic and temperature creep acceleration effects is proposed.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 413–420, 1968     

Vibrocreep of polymer materials

The normal and vibrational creep and recovery of low- and high-density polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE) and filled LDPE have been studied experimentally under isothermal conditions when the superposition of vibration is not accompanied by mechanohysteresis heating of the material.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 246–254, 1968     

Stress relaxation in physically nonlinear polymer materials under simultaneous tension and torsion

Conclusions 1. Application of our method of determining the parameters of physically nonlinear polymer materials from tests in uniaxial tension or in torsion ensures a satisfactory agreement between theoretical and experimental stress-relaxation curves corresponding to other modes of loading.2. Theoretical stress-relaxation curves for shear (tension) calculated on the basis of parameters which have been determined from approximations of stress-relaxation curves for tension (torsion) fall closely within the confidence interval for an individual measurement (with =95%).3. The agreement between theoretical and experimental stress-relaxation curves for a plane state of stress is 2–3 times worse, in terms of the mean-square relative difference, than the agreement between the respective curves for uniaxial tension.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 5, pp. 797–803, September–October, 1977.     

Friction in polymer materials

The author calculates the area of contact between two rough flat surfaces on the supposition that the normal law of distribution holds for the heights of the roughnesses. He determines the nominal stress at which the deformations of the roughnesses can be regarded as independent. He shows that in real cases of contact, the deformation of the roughnesses of polymer surfaces can be regarded as elastic.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 4, pp. 654–660, July–August, 1972.     

Acoustic fatigue of polymer materials

Methods are proposed for experimentally estimating the temperature-time aging of a filled rubber and the degree of damage accumulation in high-frequency fatigue tests. A procedure for experimentally determining the energy dissipation function of a material from the specimen temperature kinetics is described. The results of an investigation of the fatigue properties of two series of filled rubbers at a vibration frequency of 20 kHz are presented. It is shown that the fatigue failure of the materials tested is thermal in character. No accumulation of mechanical damage in the material in the course of intense vibration could be detected.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 4, pp. 662–668, July–August, 1969.