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Thermoviscoelastic models for polyethylene thin films

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Abstract

This paper presents a constitutive thermoviscoelastic model for thin films of linear low-density polyethylene subject to strains up to yielding. The model is based on the free volume theory of nonlinear thermoviscoelasticity, extended to orthotropic membranes. An ingredient of the present approach is that the experimentally inaccessible out-of-plane material properties are determined by fitting the model predictions to the measured nonlinear behavior of the film. Creep tests, uniaxial tension tests, and biaxial bubble tests are used to determine the material parameters. The model has been validated experimentally, against data obtained from uniaxial tension tests and biaxial cylindrical tests at a wide range of temperatures and strain rates spanning two orders of magnitude.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. Wolfgang Knauss (California Institute of Technology), James Rand (Winzen Engineering), and David Wakefield (Tensys Limited) for helpful comments and discussions. We thank Dr. He of NASA GSFC for providing DMA test data on StratoFilm, Dr. W.N. Warner of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for assistance in measuring the out-of-plane CTE of StratoFilm, and Dr. L. Young of NASA Wallops for providing test data. This research was supported by the NASA Balloon Program Office. Financial support from the Croucher Foundation (Hong Kong) for Kawai Kwok is also gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Aerospace Laboratories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

    Jun Li, Kawai Kwok & Sergio Pellegrino

  2. Dassault Systemes Simulia Corp., Johnston, RI, 02919, USA

    Jun Li

  3. Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark, Roskilde, Denmark

    Kawai Kwok

Authors
  1. Jun Li
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  2. Kawai Kwok
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  3. Sergio Pellegrino
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Correspondence to Sergio Pellegrino.

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Li, J., Kwok, K. & Pellegrino, S. Thermoviscoelastic models for polyethylene thin films. Mech Time-Depend Mater 20, 13–43 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11043-015-9282-8

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