Timescales and Phenomenology of Mechanically Stimulated Glasses: a Review

The principal features of the volumetric as well as the viscoelastic response of mechanically stimulated glasses can be summarized as follows: i) the time-aging time shift factors contract upon increasing the probe stress (i.e. the stress apparently modifies the volume recovery kinetics), ii) the volume recovery baseline remains unaltered (i.e. the underlying structure of the stimulated glass remains unchanged) iii) yielding scales linearly with the logarithmic of the strain rate. Here we present a review of the above features with aid of a series of numerically simulated results concerning the responses of glassy polycarbonate. Simulations are obtained coupling a modified KAHR equation with the constitutive law for linear viscoelasticity within the domain of the reduced time. It will be shown that by using a minimum of experimental (PVT and linear viscoelastic) data inputs even the subtle intricacies can be predicted. Furthermore a new class of results concerning the stress-strain behaviour of glassy polymers is presented that never appeared before.