VISCOELASTICITY

Viscoelasticity

Many materials display time

dependence in their elastic response
gum
bread dough
cheese
Viscoelastic materials possess both
elastic and flow characteristics
 Creep

Consider a material placed under a

weight. A constant stress is applied, and
we measure how the strain (h/h)
changes with time F

O r ig in a l
h
C o m p re s s e d
Elastic Material
force removed

F
h h
Instantaneous Instantaneous
elastic elastic
Original deformation recovery
h
Compressed

force applied
Time
Viscoelatic Material

force removed
F retarded
h deformation Instantaneous
(creep) elastic
recovery
h
Original h
Compressed retarded
recovery
Instantaneous
elastic
deformation permanent deformation

force applied

Time
Creep: deformation that occurs over
period of time when a material is
subjected to a constant stress (at
constant temperature)
 Step Strain/Stress Relaxation

Induce an immediate step change in the

strain, then monitor the stress on the
material with time
 1 Hookean solid
6 2
5 3

4 St ress

St rain
Time

Time
Viscoelastic

Solid
L
Newtonian Fluid St ress
e
Liquid

St ress
Fixed end
Time

Time
Elastic Material: stress increases immediately
with strain and remains constant
Newtonian Fluid: stresses increases with
application of strain, quickly declines to zero
Viscoelastic material: stress increases
immediately, declines gradually over time.
viscoelatic solid-decline is gradual and levels off at
e
viscoelatic liquid, stress declines rapidly and goes to
zero
 Molecular Basis of Creep
and Stress Relaxation

Five theories
Chain scission
Bond interchange
Viscous flow
Thirion relaxation
Molecular relaxation
Chain scission: degradative reactions such as
oxidation or hydrolysis lead to cleavage of
polymer chains. Chains help bear load while
intact

Scission
Bond Interchange: portions of polymers may
change partners causing release of stress. In
presence of stress, rearrangements tend to
reform so as to reduce stress
Viscous flow: caused by linear chains
that evenutally slip past one another

F
Thirion Relaxation: reversible relaxation
of cross-links or entanglements
Molecular Relaxation: below Tg,
molecules move very slowly, thus the
material appears as an amorphous
solid. As temperature approaches Tg,
chains move and relax at an observable
rate on the lab time scale.
For chains under stress, motions will
tend to relieve the stress