Wednesday  |  Carnegie III  |  04:20 PM–04:40 PM

#13768, Elasto-Viscoplastic-Damage in High Density Polyethylene Under Chemical Environment

High density polyethylene (HDPE) is an important semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer that is commonly used in a wide variety of applications including biomedical implants and fluid transportation systems (water, oil, and gas). Due to its semi-crystalline structure and time dependent viscoelastic nature, PE can undergo creep rupture or slow crack grow (SCG), which can be significantly accelerated by environmental temperature and chemical exposure. We are developing a temperature and chemical environment dependent coupled elasto-viscoplastic-damage theory to model the deformation and failure of HDPE at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 50C. We are conducting in-air and chemical environment exposure experiments to calibrate and validate our model. The HDPE failure mechanism is also investigated through microscopic study of the fracture surfaces.

Andrea Lu   Brown University
Jun Zhong   Brown University
Venkatsai Bellala   Brown University
Vikas Srivastava   Brown University