Stress Relaxation Studies of the Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers

1957 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-448
Author(s):  
Arthur V. Tobolsky

Abstract Extensive studies of the viscoelastic properties of polymers undertaken in the author's laboratory by means of the method of stress relaxation are here reviewed. The discussion is divided into four parts: chemical stress relaxation, stress relaxation in amorphous polymers, stress relaxation in crystalline polymers, and stress relaxation in certain natural polymers and polyelectrolytes. Mathematical description of the phenomena are presented in simple form. The relation between structure and viscoelastic properties of polymers are discussed and a rather complete over-all picture of these phenomena seems to be emerging.

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4384
Author(s):  
Mohd Aidy Faizal Johari ◽  
Asmawan Mohd Sarman ◽  
Saiful Amri Mazlan ◽  
Ubaidillah U ◽  
Nur Azmah Nordin ◽  
...  

Micro mechanism consideration is critical for gaining a thorough understanding of amorphous shear band behavior in magnetorheological (MR) solids, particularly those with viscoelastic matrices. Heretofore, the characteristics of shear bands in terms of formation, physical evolution, and response to stress distribution at the localized region have gone largely unnoticed and unexplored. Notwithstanding these limitations, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to explore the nature of shear band deformation in MR materials during stress relaxation. Stress relaxation at a constant low strain of 0.01% and an oscillatory shear of defined test duration played a major role in the creation of the shear band. In this analysis, the localized area of the study defined shear bands as varying in size and dominantly deformed in the matrix with no evidence of inhibition by embedded carbonyl iron particles (CIPs). The association between the shear band and the adjacent zone was further studied using in-phase imaging of AFM tapping mode and demonstrated the presence of localized affected zone around the shear band. Taken together, the results provide important insights into the proposed shear band deformation zone (SBDZ). This study sheds a contemporary light on the contentious issue of amorphous shear band deformation behavior and makes several contributions to the current literature.


1986 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyung-Do Suh ◽  
Hidetoshi Oikawa ◽  
Kenkichi Murakami

Abstract From the experimental results of the present investigation, it is apparent that two kinds of networks which have a different three-dimensional network structure give quite different behavior of chemical stress relaxation, even if both networks have the same network chain density. The difference in three-dimensional network structure for the two kinds of rubber arises from the degree of entanglement, which changes with the concentration of the polymer chains prior to the crosslinking process. The direct cause of chemical relaxation is due to the scission of network chains by degradation, whereas the total relaxation is caused by the change of geometrical conformation of network chains. This then casts doubt on the basic concept of chemorheology which is represented by Equation 2.


1998 ◽  
Vol 201 (19) ◽  
pp. 2691-2699 ◽  
Author(s):  
PA Doherty ◽  
RJ Wassersug ◽  
JM Lee

The tadpole tail fin is a simple double layer of skin overlying loose connective tissue. Collagen fibres in the fin are oriented at approximately +/-45 degrees from the long axis of the tail. Three tests were conducted on samples of the dorsal tail fin from 6-10 Rana catesbeiana tadpoles to establish the fin's viscoelastic properties under (1) large-deformation cyclic loading at 1 and 3 Hz, (2) small-deformation forced vibration at 1 and 3 Hz, and (3) stress relaxation under a 0.1 s loading time. The fin was very fragile, failing easily under tensile loads less than 7 g. It was also strikingly viscoelastic, as demonstrated by 72+/-1 % hysteresis loss (at 3 Hz), 16+/-3 % stress remaining after 100 s of stress relaxation and a phase angle of 18+/-1 degrees in forced vibration. As a consequence of its viscoelastic properties, the fin was three times stiffer in small than in large deformation. This may account for the ability of the fin to stay upright during normal undulatory swimming, despite the absence of any skeletal support. Tadpoles in nature are often found with damaged tails. We suggest that the unusually viscoelastic and fragile nature of the fin helps tadpoles escape the grasp of predators. Because the fin deforms viscoelastically and tears easily, tadpoles can escape predators and survive otherwise lethal attacks with only minor lacerations to the fin. Recent studies have shown that certain tadpoles develop taller fins in the presence of predators. This developmental plasticity is consistent with the tail fin acting as a protective but expendable 'wrap' around the core muscle tissue.


1998 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Hamed ◽  
J. Zhao

Abstract Thin specimens of a black-filled, natural rubber vulcanizate have been held in uniaxial tension at 72°C and 200% elongation in a forced air oven. After substantial oxidative attack (inferred from stress relaxation), small edge cracks formed. Initially, these cracks grew perpendicular to the loading direction, but, upon reaching about 0.1 mm in depth, longitudinal crack growth commenced and fracture progressed by a kind of 0°-peel process with “splitting-off” of successive strands of rubber. This phenomenon is attributed to anisotropy in strength caused both by straining and by oxidative attack.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia M. Grad ◽  
Isabell Tunn ◽  
Dion Voerman ◽  
Alberto S. de Léon ◽  
Roel Hammink ◽  
...  

Biological materials combine stress relaxation and self-healing with non-linear stress-strain responses. These characteristic features are a direct result of hierarchical self-assembly, which often results in fiber-like architectures. Even though structural knowledge is rapidly increasing, it has remained a challenge to establish relationships between microscopic and macroscopic structure and function. Here, we focus on understanding how network topology determines the viscoelastic properties, i.e. stress relaxation, of biomimetic hydrogels. We have dynamically crosslinked two different synthetic polymers with one and the same crosslink. The first polymer, a polyisocyanopeptide (PIC), self-assembles into semi-flexible, fiber-like bundles and thus displays stress-stiffening, similar to many biopolymer networks. The second polymer, 4-arm poly(ethylene glycol) (starPEG), serves as a reference network with well-characterized structural and viscoelastic properties. Using one and the same coiled coil crosslink allows us to decouple the effects of crosslink kinetics and network topology on the stress relaxation behavior of the resulting hydrogel networks. We show that the fiber-containing PIC network displays a relaxation time approximately two orders of magnitude slower than the starPEG network. This reveals that crosslink kinetics is not the only determinant for stress relaxation. Instead, we propose that the different network topologies determine the ability of elastically active network chains to relax stress. In the starPEG network, each elastically active chain contains exactly one crosslink. In the absence of entanglements, crosslink dissociation thus relaxes the entire chain. In contrast, each polymer is crosslinked to the fiber bundle in multiple positions in the PIC hydrogel. The dissociation of a single crosslink is thus not sufficient for chain relaxation. This suggests that tuning the number of crosslinks per elastically active chain in combination with crosslink kinetics is a powerful design principle for tuning stress relaxation in polymeric materials. The presence of a higher number of crosslinks per elastically active chain thus yields materials with a slow macroscopic relaxation time but fast dynamics at the microscopic level. Using this principle for the design of synthetic cell culture matrices will yield materials with excellent long-term stability combined with the ability to locally reorganize, thus facilitating cell motility, spreading and growth.


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