Authors: Michael Poluektov Johannes A W van Dommelen Leon E Govaert Iryna Yakimets Marc G D Geers
Publish Date: 2013/02/12
Volume: 48, Issue: 10, Pages: 3769-3781
Abstract
The aim of this study is to assess the interactions between the constituent phases of polyethylene terephthalate and thereby analyse the validity of a hybrid interaction model in a meanfield micromechanical model based on layered twophase inclusions Two different modelling approaches are used to simulate the behaviour of semicrystalline polymers The first approach is the micromechanical model based on interactions of the crystalline lamellae and the adjacent amorphous layers The second approach is a twoscale finiteelement model of the spherulitic microstructure Isotropic polyethylene terephthalate is selected as the model material The deformation mechanisms at the microscopic scale are examined Various crystal geometries are used in the finiteelement model to analyse the case when the crystalline regions do not form an interconnected network It is shown that the predictions of the microscopic deformation measures obtained with the micromechanical and the finiteelement models are similar Experimental evaluation of the elastic moduli has been performed to further estimate the applicability of the micromechanical model to PETThis research was carried out under Project Number M62209331 in the framework of the Research Program of the Materials innovation institute M2i http//wwwm2inl The Holst Centre http//wwwholstcentrecom is gratefully acknowledged for supplying the materials for this research
Keywords: