CONSTITUTIVE MODELING OF AGGREGATES WITH EVOLVING INEXTENSIBLE CONSTRAINTS

Crystalline and semicrystalline polymers are formed as aggregates of g rains with evolving inextensible axes. This inextensible constraint le ads to texture evolution under large plastic deformation. This paper f ocuses on the texture evolution of crystalline polymers under axisymme tric and plane-strain cases. The proposed model gives reasonable predi ctions for the cases of axisymmetric tension and compression, plane-st rain compression, and simple shear. The averaged form of the constitut ive law is used to predict crack-tip superblunting in semi-crystalline polymers. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.