Cyclic viscoelastoplasticity and low-cycle fatigue of polymer composites

Observations are reported on a polymer composite (polyamide-6 reinforced with short glass fibers) in tensile relaxation tests with various strains, tensile creep tests with various stresses, and cyclic tests with a stress-controlled program (ratcheting with a fixed maximum stress and various minimum stresses). Constitutive equations are developed in cyclic viscoelastoplasticity of polymer composites. Adjustable parameters in the stress-strain relations are found by fitting observations in relaxation tests and cyclic tests (16 cycles of loading-unloading). It is demonstrated that the model correctly predicts experimental data in creep tests and dependencies of maximum and minimum strains per cycle on number of cycles up to fatigue fracture of specimens. The influence of strain rate and minimum stress on number of cycles to failure is studied numerically. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.