Abstract
Polyurea is an elastic co-polymer which possesses a very complex nanometer-scale microstructure consisting of (high glass-transition temperature, T g) hydrogen-bonded discrete hard domains dispersed within a (low T g) contiguous soft matrix. A number of experimental investigations reported in the open literature clearly established that (a) polyurea has an unusually high capacity for shock mitigation and (b) this ability of polyurea is related to its segmental dynamics (the same process which is responsible for the rubbery-to-glassy transition). Due to the fact that the segmental dynamics in question involves a large number of atoms with coordinated motion and, hence, is associated with nanosecond to microsecond characteristic times, it cannot be generally analyzed using all-atom molecular dynamics techniques. To overcome this problem, mesoscale coarse-grain simulation methods are employed in this study. Within the all-atomic simulation methods, the material is modeled as a collection of constituent atom-size particles. Within the mesoscale methods, on the other hand, this atomistic description of the material is replaced with a collection of coarser particles/beads which account for the collective degrees of freedom of the constituent atoms. Consequently, before the mesoscale methods could be employed to polyurea, all-atom molecular analyses had to be used to determine the basic properties (i.e., mass and radius) of the beads and to parameterize the mesoscale bonding and non-bonding forcefield functions. The mesoscale analyses were then used to (a) obtain critical information regarding the material microstructure and its evolution (from an initially fully blended homogeneous state) and (b) the segmental dynamics in the microsegregated state of the material.
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Acknowledgements
The material presented in this article is based on work supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) research contract entitled “Elastomeric Polymer-By-Design to Protect the Warfighter Against Traumatic Brain Injury by Diverting the Blast Induced Shock Waves from the Head,” Contract Number 4036-CU-ONR-1125 as funded through the Pennsylvania State University, the Army Research Office (ARO) research contract entitled “Multi-length Scale Material Model Development for Armor-grade Composites,” Contract Number W911NF-09-1-0513, and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) research contract entitled “Computational Analysis and Modeling of Various Phenomena Accompanying Detonation Explosives Shallow-Buried in Soil” Contract Number W911NF-06-2-0042. The authors are indebted to Dr. Roshdy Barsoum of ONR for his continuing support and interest in this study. The authors also want to thank professors J. Runt, J. Tarter, G. Settles, G. Dillon, and M. Hargether for stimulating discussions and friendship.
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Grujicic, M., Pandurangan, B. Mesoscale analysis of segmental dynamics in microphase-segregated polyurea. J Mater Sci 47, 3876–3889 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-011-6243-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-011-6243-8