On the physical interpretation of pseudo-plastic behaviour of polymers and prediction for various environmental conditions

This paper reports the development of a theory allowing the prediction of the uniaxial mechanical behaviour of thermoplastics as a function of temperature and liquid absorption. This theory takes into account the influence of glass transition temperature and relies on physical phenomena like damage accumulation and molecular-chain motion in order to provide a better understanding of the microstructure changes during the solicitation and their influence on mechanical properties. The theory was validated on a neat polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) and provided good predictions and correlations with experimental data for every environmental configuration studied.