Simulation of the Long Term Behaviour of Plastics Components

Summary: This paper presents a method to model the mechanical behavior of polymers over a wide time- and load-range by means of finite element analyses. The method includes a material model as well as the determination of material parameters to calibrate the material model. As a special feature of this method the model is calibrated only by using creep data that are commonly available in material data bases. So the procedure improves the simulation of the long time behavior of plastic-components without an additional experimental effort. In combination with time-temperature-superposition principle, the temperature dependency of the long term behavior is represented, too. The simulation results are validated by creep experiments on an example part.