Accelerated testing method for ratcheting of polymers

What is it about?

The deformation process under the cyclic loading can be accelerated through use of temperature and stress.This work proposed a time-temperature-stress (TTS) equivalence method in which all the parameters have clear physical meanings and can be determined experimentally, to predict the long-term cyclic loading behavior for polycarbonate using short-term data.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The long-term performance of polymers under cyclic loading is important for safety assessments in engineering applications. However the design life of an engineering polymer could be as long as several decades and it is impractical and uneconomic to perform cyclic loading tests for such a long time. Using the proposed method, time and cost can be dramatically saved for the assessment of the long-term cyclic loading performance of polycarbonate.