PSI - Issue 52

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Chenxu Jiang et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 52 (2024) 63–71 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

Fig. 10 Elastic modulus as a function of crystallinity for polyethylene in the literature (Bahloul, Doghri, & Adam, 2021), (Janzen & Science, 1992), (Crist, Fisher, & Howard, 1989), (Davidse, Waterman, & Westerdijk, 1962), (Bédoui, Diani, Régnier, & Seiler, 2006) 5. Conclusion This study proposes an anisotropic spherulite model with sheaf structure to predict the mechanical properties of semi-crystalline polymers. The main conclusions can be summarized as follows: 1. The initial orientation of the sheaf structure shows important effects on the mechanical properties of a single spherulite. The effective elastic modulus reduces gradually as the initial orientation shifts from 0° to 60°, but there is a slight increase in the modulus if the initial orientation increases from 60° to 90°. 2. The plasticity of spherulite is generally controlled by the slip of the crystalline phase, and the amorphous phase is forced to deform to satisfy the balance and compatibility between the lamellae. 3. The inhomogeneous behavior of Semi-crystalline polymers is mainly controlled by the anisotropic structure within the single spherules, while the interactions from the adjacent spherulites have negligible effects. Acknowledgements The present work is supported by the Advanced Research Project of Manned Spaceflight under Grant Nos. 040101, and Science Foundation of the National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments. References Bahloul, A., Doghri, I., & Adam, L. J. C. M. S. 2021. Linking a phase field model for polymer crystallization to full field micromechanical simulations of semi-crystalline polymers. 199: 110685. Bartczak, Z., Argon, A., & Cohen, R. J. M. 1992. Deformation mechanisms and plastic resistance in single-crystal textured high-density polyethylene. 25(19): 5036-5053. Bédoui, F., Diani, J., Régnier, G., & Seiler, W. J. A. M. 2006. Micromechanical modeling of isotropic elastic behavior of semicrystalline polymers. 54(6): 1513-1523. Butler, M., & Donald, A. J. J. o. m. s. 1997. Deformation of spherulitic polyethylene thin films. 32: 3675-3685. Choy, C., & Leung, W. J. J. o. P. S. P. P. E. 1985. Elastic moduli of ultradrawn polyethylene. 23(9): 1759-1780. Crist, B., Fisher, C. J., & Howard, P. R. J. M. 1989. Mechanical properties of model polyethylenes: tensile elastic modulus and yield stress. 22(4): 1709-1718. Davidse, P., Waterman, H., & Westerdijk, J. J. J. o. P. S. 1962. Sound velocity and young's modulus in polyethylene. 59(168): 389-400. Gautam, S., Balijepalli, S., & Rutledge, G. J. M. 2000. Molecular simulations of the interlamellar phase in polymers: effect of chain tilt. 33(24): 9136-9145. Janzen, J. J. P. E., & Science. 1992. Elastic moduli of semicrystalline polyethylenes compared with theoretical