A thermo-viscoelastic approach for the characterization and modeling of the bending behavior of thermoplastic composites

Currently, there is no established and cost-effective method for the bending characterization of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites. Isothermal mechanical testing techniques are time and labor-intensive and deliver information only about distinct points of the temperature-dependent property curves. In this study, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) as well as novel rheometer-based bending experiments were performed to assess temperature-dependent and viscoelastic behavior. On the basis of the experimental results a new method was defined and validated for the efficient characterization of temperature-dependent elastic bending behavior via DMA. Furthermore a linear viscoelastic material model was derived from DMA experiments by means of time temperature superposition. As the material behavior proved to be of a highly viscoelastic nature, a method was developed to calibrate a material model, the parallel rheological framework, implemented in Abaqus. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.