Modeling of the Long-Term Behavior of Glassy Polymers

The constitutive model for glassy polymers proposed by Arruda and Boyce (BPA model) is reviewed and compared to experimental data for long-term loading. The BPA model has previously been shown to capture monotonic loading accurately, but for unloading and long-term behavior, the response of the BPA model is found to deviate from experimental data. In the present paper, we suggest an efficient extension that significantly improves the predictive capability of the BPA model during unloading and long-term recovery. The new, extended BPA model (EBPA model) is calibrated to experimental data of polycarbonate (PC) in various loading–unloading situations and deformation states. The numerical treatment of the BPA model associated with the finite element analysis is also discussed. As a consequence of the anisotropic hardening, the plastic spin enters the model. In order to handle the plastic spin in a finite element formulation, an algorithmic plastic spin is introduced. In conjunction with the backward Euler integration scheme use of the algorithmic plastic spin leads to a set of algebraic equations that provides the updated state. Numerical examples reveal that the proposed numerical algorithm is robust and well suited for finite element simulations.