Related papers: Modelling Mullins Effect Induced by Chain Delamina…
The Mullins effect represents a softening phenomenon observed in rubber-like materials and soft biological tissues. It is usually accompanied by many other inelastic effects like for example residual strain and induced anisotropy. In spite…
The study deals with the Payne effect (a substantial decrease in the storage modulus of a particle-reinforced elastomer with an increase in the amplitude of mechanical oscillations). The influence of temperature, concentration of filler and…
This work focuses on the thermodynamics of pseudo-elastic models which represent the Mullins effect. Two established models are analyzed theoretically, their thermomechanical properties are derived, and certain critical points are…
Nanoscale polymeric thin films are widely used in diverse applications such as energy devices, flexible electronics and biosensors, where a satisfactory mechanical performance is of vital importance to realize their full functionality. It…
Soft materials including elastomers and gels are pervasive in biological systems and technological applications. Whereas it is known that intrinsic fracture energies of soft materials are relatively low, how the intrinsic fracture energy…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we examine the dynamics of a family of model polymers with varying chain length and torsional potential barriers. We focus on features of the dynamics of polymers that are seen experimentally but absent…
We report the mechanical response of a model nanocomposite system of poly(styrene) (PS)-silica to large-amplitude oscillatory shear deformations. Nonlinear behavior of PS nanocomposites is discussed with the changes in particle dispersion…
We study the deformation of nano--scale polymer films which are subject to external bending forces by means of computer simulation. The polymer is represented by a generalized bead--spring--model, intended to reproduce characteristic…
We present an analytical theory for heteropolymer deformation, as exemplified experimentally by stretching of single protein molecules. Using a mean-field replica theory, we determine phase diagrams for stress-induced unfolding of typical…
Predicting the macroscopic mechanical behavior of polymeric materials from the micro-structural features has remained a challenge for decades. Existing theoretical models often fail to accurately capture the experimental data, due to…
We investigate the cyclic mechanical behavior in uniaxial tension of three different commercial thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU) often considered as a sustainable replacement for common filled elastomers. All TPU have similar…
We report simulation results on melts of entangled linear polymers confined in a free-standing thin film. We study how the geometric constraints imposed by the confinement alter the entanglement state of the system compared to the…
We extend classical Flory-Rehner theory for the expansion and compression of porous materials such as cross-linked polymer networks. The theory includes volume exclusion, affinity with the solvent, and finite stretching of the polymer…
Elastomers are viscoelastic materials and their properties significantly depend on the loading rate. The actual stress experienced by these materials is the sum of equilibrium and dissipative (inelastic) terms. At very low loading rates we…
Solutions of semiflexible polymers confined by repulsive planar walls are studied by density functional theory and Molecular Dynamics simulations, to clarify the competition between the chain alignment favored by the wall and the depletion…
Recent work demonstrates that finite-deformation nonlinear elasticity is essential in the accurate modeling of wrinkling in highly stretched thin films. Geometrically exact models predict an isola-center bifurcation, indicating that for a…
The reptation concept in polymer dynamics is studied for model chains with added stiffness. The main idea of a chain diffusing inside a tube can be transferred from fully flexible chains. However, the picture, which renormalizes the chain…
Soft biological tissues exhibit a remarkable resilience to large mechanical loads, a property which is associated with the strain stiffening capability of the biopolymer networks that structurally support the tissues. Yet, recent studies…
Recent developments of microscopic mechanical experiments allow the manipulation of individual polymer molecules in two main ways: \textit{uniform} stretching by external forces and \textit{non-uniform} stretching by external fields. Many…
We propose a theoretical framework for dealing with a transient polymer network undergoing small deformations, based on the rate of breaking and re-forming of network crosslinks and the evolving elastic reference state. In this framework,…