Viscoelastic Characterization of Short Fibres Reinforced Thermoplastic in Tension and Shearing
Résumé
The present work can be regarded as a first step toward an integrated modelling of mould filling during injection moulding process of polymer matrix composites and the resulting material behaviour under service loading conditions. More precisely, the emphasis of the present research is laid on the development of a mechanical model which takes into account the processing-induced microstructure and is capable to predict the mechanical response of the material. In the Part I, a set of experiments which captures the mechanical behaviour of an injection moulded short fibre reinforced under different strain histories is described. Three mechanical testing are conducted: Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), uniaxial tension and simple shear. Tests show that the material exhibits complex responses mainly due to non-linearity, anisotropy, time/rate-dependence, hysteresis and permanent strain. Moreover, the relaxed state of the material is characterized by the existence of a so-called anisotropic equilibrium hysteresis independently of the prescribed strain rate.