Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Mapping Viscoelastic and Plastic Properties of Polymers and Polymer-Nanotube Composites using Instrumented Indentation

Published

Author(s)

Robert F. Cook, Andrew J. Gayle

Abstract

An instrumented indentation method is developed for generating maps of time-dependent viscoelastic and time-independent plastic properties of polymeric materials. The method is based on a pyramidal indentation model consisting of two quadratic viscoelastic Kelvin-like elements and a quadratic plastic element in series. Closed-form solutions for indentation displacement under constant load and constant loading-rate are developed and used to determine and validate material properties. Model parameters are determined by point measurements on common monolithic polymers. Mapping is demonstrated on an epoxy-ceramic interface and on two composite materials consisting of epoxy matrices containing multi-wall carbon nanotubes. A fast viscoelastic deformation process in the epoxy was unaffected by the inclusion of the nanotubes, whereas a slow viscoelastic process was significantly impeded, as was the plastic deformation. Mapping revealed considerable spatial heterogeneity in the slow viscoelastic and plastic responses in the composites, particularly in the material with a greater fraction of nanotubes.
Citation
Journal of Materials Research

Keywords

nano-indentation, polymer, composite

Citation

Cook, R. and Gayle, A. (2016), Mapping Viscoelastic and Plastic Properties of Polymers and Polymer-Nanotube Composites using Instrumented Indentation, Journal of Materials Research, [online], https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.207 (Accessed December 2, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created August 15, 2016, Updated January 27, 2020