APPLICATION OF CRACK LAYER IN MODELING OF SLOW CRACK GROWTH IN HIGH-DENSITY POLYETHYLENE

摘要

Crack layer model provides a comprehensive foundation for modeling of fracture growth, failure analysis, and lifetime prediction. During the past two decades, it has been widely applied for modeling various aspects of brittle fracture in general. This paper illustrates in details the procedure of implementation by an example of slow crack growth in a commercialized high-density polyethylene undergoing creep conditions. Firstly, we determine experimentally the basic parameters employed in constitutive equations of crack layer model such as draw ratio λ, the specific energy of transformation γ~(tr), and drawing stress σ_(dr), etc.. Secondly, we implement crack layer model numerically in lab-developed "Simulator". The paper provides a paradigm for implementation of crack layer model in slow crack growth, and a blueprint for potential software development that can be used in ranking and the lifetime assessment of a large set of engineering polymers.