Predicting thermal shape recovery of crosslinked polymer networks from linear viscoelasticity

Abstract

The viscoelastic behavior of an amorphous shape-memory polymer network and its dependence on time and temperature were measured by dynamic mechanical analysis. The resulting thermomechanical behavior was modeled and implemented in a commercial finite element code. The ability of the resulting thermomechanical model to simulate and, eventually, predict the shape storage and shape recovery of the material was evaluated by comparison with experimental shape memory thermomechanical torsion data in a large deformation regimen. The simulations showed excellent agreement with experimental shape memory thermomechanical cycle data. This demonstrates the dependence of the shape recovery on time and temperature. The results suggest that accurate predictions of the shape recovery of any amorphous polymer networks under any thermomechanical conditions combination solely depends on considering the material viscoelasticity and its timetemperature dependence.