Damage evolution and energy dissipation of polymers with crazes

Craze damage evolution and energy dissipation of amorphous polymers with crazes have been studied. A mathematical model of a single craze (SC) is proposed by adopting the fibril creep mechanism. The viscoelastic characteristics of craze fibrils are supposed to obey the Maxwell model and the craze fibrils are assumed to be compressible. The assumption of Kausch [H.H. Kausch, The role of network orientation and microstructure in fracture initiation, J. Polym. Sci. C 32 (1971) 1-44] is adopted to describe the rupture of stressed fibril bonds. The craze damage evolution and the energy dissipation equations of a SC are derived. The equations are solved numerically and the life of a SC is computed. In a significant range of far-field stress, the dissipated energy varies linearly with the stress. Using the proposed model, the uniaxial stress-strain relation of polymers with low-density craze arrays (PLDCA) is investigated. The damage evolution equation of PLDCA is derived, which shows the mathematical relation between the damage of a SC and that of PLDCA. Based on the computed results, the variation of life of PLDCA with respect to applied stress is determined. Discussions are then given to the results and some significant conclusions are drawn. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.