Long-term creep-rupture failure envelope of epoxy

An accelerated testing methodology based on the time-temperature superposition principle has been proposed in the literature for the long-term creep strength of polymer matrices and polymer composites. Also, it has been suggested that a standard master curve may be a feasible assumption to describe the creep behavior in both tension and compression modes. In the present research, strength master curves for an aerospace epoxy (8552) were generated for tension and compression, by shifting strength data measured at various temperatures. The shift function is obtained from superposition of creep-compliance curves obtained at different temperatures. A standard master curve was presented to describe the creep-rupture of the polymer under tension and compression. Moreover, long-term creep-rupture failure envelopes of the polymer were presented based on a two-part failure criterion for homogeneous and isotropic materials. Ultimately, the approach presented allows the prediction of creep-rupture failure envelopes for a time-dependent material based on tensile strengths measured at various temperatures, considering that the ratio between tensile and compressive strengths is known.