Progressive damage and rupture in polymers

Progressive damage, which eventually leads to failure, is ubiquitous in biological and synthetic polymers. The simplest case to consider is that of elastomeric materials which can undergo large reversible deformations with negligible rate dependence. In this paper we develop a theory for modeling pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Talamini, Brandon Louis (Author), Mao, Yunwei (Author), Anand, Lallit (Author)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier BV, 2020-09-04T21:52:56Z.
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Summary:Progressive damage, which eventually leads to failure, is ubiquitous in biological and synthetic polymers. The simplest case to consider is that of elastomeric materials which can undergo large reversible deformations with negligible rate dependence. In this paper we develop a theory for modeling progressive damage and rupture of such materials. We extend the phase-field method, which is widely used to describe the damage and fracture of brittle materials, to elastomeric materials undergoing large deformations. A central feature of our theory is the recognition that the free energy of elastomers is not entirely entropic in nature - there is also an energetic contribution from the deformation of the bonds in the chains. It is the energetic part in the free energy which is the driving force for progressive damage and fracture.