Viscoelastic behavior of semicrystalline polymers at elevated temperatures on the basis of a two‐process model for stress relaxation

Viscoelastic behavior at elevated temperatures of high‐density polyethylene and isotactic polypropylene was investigated by using the stress relaxation method. The results are interpreted from the view of an established two‐process model for stress relaxation in semicrystalline polymers. This model is based on the assumption that the stress relaxation can be represented as a superposition of two thermally activated processes acting in parallel. Each process is associated either with the crystal or amorphous phase of a polymer sample. It was found that the temperature dependence of viscosity coefficients and elastic moduli of these two fractions are similar in the two materials. The experimental data was correlated with literature data of α and β processes in polyethylene and polypropylene obtained from dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 3239–3246, 2000