Stress-strain curves for Unfilled polymers

below shows a typical stress-strain curve for short-term loading of a typical unfilled thermoplastic material. Figure 6 depicts the same curve as shown in Figure 5, except it is stretched horizontally to show the details within the elastic region. Several important material properties, such as Young's modulus, proportional limit, elastic limit, yield point, ductility, ultimate strength, and elongation at failure, can be obtained from the stress-strain curve, as shown in Figures 5 and 6. Young's modulus Young's modulus is derived from the initial, straight-line portion of the curve as the ratio of stress to strain for that portion of the curve (see Figure 6).

Although it is occasionally referenced as a measure of material strength, Young's modulus is actually more of an indicator of the rigidity of a material than the strength. It is the basis for simple linear engineering calculations, for example, in determining the stiffness of a plastic part. Proportional limit The Proportional limit, marked as point "P" in Figure 6, is the strain at which the slope of the stress-strain curve starts to deviate from linear behavior. Elastic limit The Elastic limit, point "I" on Figure 6, is the greatest strain the material can absorb and still recover. As strain continues to increase, the plastic will either draw, without recovery, or fail by rupturing (as shown in Figure 5).

FIGURE 5. Stress-strain curve for a typical thermoplastic.

FIGURE 6. The same stress-strain curve as shown in Figure 5, except it is stretched horizontally to show the details within the elastic region. Point P is the proportional limit, most often used as the design strain limit. Point I is the Elastic limit, beyond which the plastic part will not recover its original shape.

Stress-strain curves for fiber-filled polymers

The stress-strain curves for a pair of thermoplastic compounds are shown in Figure 7. The base resin is the same for both compounds, except one compound is unfilled while the other contains 30 percent glass fiber as a reinforcement. You can see that the glass fibers significantly increase the ultimate strength, yield strength, proportional limit, and the Young's modulus while causing the filled resin to rupture at a much lower strain. On the other hand, the unfilled resin shows "drawing" at strains beyond the yield point. The stress decreases to a plateau beyond the yield point before failure. Typically, the cross sectional area of the sample decreases during the drawing, according to Poisson's Ratio for the material.

FIGURE 7. Stress-strain curves for a fiber-filled and an unfilled resin.

Rate- and temperature-dependency of stress-strain curves

The loading rate (or the strain rate) and temperature can significantly affect the stress-strain behavior of plastics. As an illustration, Figure 8 plots the influence of loading rates and temperature on the tensile stress-strain curve for a semi-crystalline resin. In general, at higher loading rates or lower temperatures, plastics materials appear to be more rigid and brittle. On the other hand, at lower loading rates or higher temperatures, materials appear to be more flexible or ductile because of their viscous characteristics. As you can see in Figure 8, an increase in loading rate significantly increases the ultimate and yield strength, whereas an increase in temperature leads to decreases in ultimate and yield strength and in proportional limit. If the material is semi-crystalline and the glass transition temperature is crossed when raising the temperature, these rate- and temperature-dependent effects can be very large, resulting in entirely different behaviors. If the material is amorphous and the softening range is crossed, the material will undergo viscous flow when loaded.

FIGURE 8. Stress-strain curves for a typical polymer at two test temperatures (high and low) and two rates of loading (fast and slow).