Computation of Mechanical Properties of a Poly-(Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene) Copolymer using a Mixed Finite Element Approach
Abstract
Despite of several decades of research, the nature of linear elasticity in microphase-separated copolymers with chemically connected glass-rubber phases is still not fully understood. In this presentation we discuss the results of an investigation of the linear elastic properties of a poly-(styrene-butadiene-styrene) triblock copolymer using a mixed finite element approach. The technique permits to deal with phases of full incompressibility as well as phases of near incompressibility as they occur in this two-component system. Strikingly and contrary to the common belief, we find that the continuum description is accurate and that no additional detailed molecular information is needed to reproduce the available linear elastic experimental data. The anomalous Poisson's ratio of the polybutadiene phase of 0.37, determined by previous authors and attributed to molecular characteristics of the polybutadiene phase, is found to be related to end-effect errors made in their tensile and torsional experiments. We also test the suitability of several semi-phenomenological models in reproducing the experimental measurements. We find that some of the methods provide reliable results of accuracy comparable to our mixed finite element approach.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..MARL30003B