Constitutive equations and failure criteria for amorphous polymeric solids

Anand & Gurtin (2002) have recently developed a continuum theory for the elastic-viscoplastic deformation of amorphous solids. Their theory is motivated by and builds on the work of Parks, Argon, Boyce, Arruda, and their co-workers (e.g. Boyce et al., 1988; Arruda & Boyce, 1993) on modeling the plastic deformation of amorphous polymers. The theory of Anand & Gurtin (2002) carefully accounts for restrictions placed on constitutive assumptions by frame-indifference and by a new mathematical definition of an amorphous material based on the notion that the constitutive relations for such materials should be invariant under all rotations of the reference configuration and, independently, all rotations of the relaxed configuration. Also, they explicitly account for the dependence of the Helmholtz free energy on the plastic deformation in a thermodynamically consistent manner, a dependence which leads directly to a backstress in the underlying flow rule. In addition to the standard kinematic and stress variables, their theory contains two internal variables: a variable s > 0 that represents an isotropic intermolecular resistance to plastic flow; and an unsigned variable 7 that represents the local free-volume. In this thesis, we extend the work of Anand & Gurtin (2002) to model the deformation and fracture response of amorphous glassy polymers which exhibit both a ductile mechanism of fracture associated with large plastic stretches and subsequent chain scission and a brittle mode of fracture.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Gearing, Brian P. (Brian Paul), 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lallit Anand.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17543

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17543