MODELLING OF TIME-DEPENDENT BEHAVIOUR OF PARTICULATE THERMOSET POLYMERS

Abstract

A preliminary study of a numerical model describing the behaviour of polymer-based composites is presented. The numerical model consists of three main parts. The first is the microplane M4 model, which is the main part of the model and is used to simulate elastoplastic behaviour and damage. The second part consists of a generalized Maxwell model, which adds the effect of linear creep of the material to the calculation. The last part is a free volume model that extends the linear creep to the nonlinear creep. The creep is calculated on the deviatoric part of the normal stress of each microplane, which allows the model to capture the polymer behaviour adequately without adjusting the free volume of the model.