Elasto-viscoplastic constitutive equations for the description of glassy polymers behavior at constant strain rate
In this study, a modelization of the viscoplastic behavior of amorphous polymers is proposed, from an approach originally developed for metal behavior at high temperature, in which state variable constitutive equations have been modified. A procedure for the identification of model parameters is developed through the use of experimental data from both uniaxial compressive tests extracted from the literature and uniaxial tensile tests performed in this study across a variety of strain rates. The numerical algorithm shows that the predictions of this model well describe qualitatively and quantitatively the intrinsic softening immediately after yielding and the subsequent progressive orientational hardening corresponding to the response of two polymers, amorphous polyethylene terephthalate and rubber toughened polymethyl methacrylate.