Etude de l'initiation de la plasticité et de l'endommagement de polymères semi-cristallins par des méthodes d’évaluation non-destructives ultrasonores

摘要

Semi-crystalline polymers are widely used materials in our everyday life and in a large range of applications, generally under visco-elastic solicitations. Consequently, many of the recent years researches study their elastic properties and their plasticity or damage micro-mechanisms occurring at a local scale (nano and micrometer). However, in situ observations of the initiation of these mechanisms (e.g. shear crystallites, cavitation or martensitic transformation) remain problematic and require the use of complex devices. Therefore, we propose to use non-destructive evaluation techniques based on the detection and the propagation of ultrasonic (US) waves in order to obtain new information about the initiation of plastic deformation and damage of semi-crystalline polymers. More specifically, we have used US and acoustic emission (AE) techniques to characterize the plasticity and damage of several PE, a PP and a PVDF during tensile tests. The US monitoring technique showed that the US attenuation of several waves is high and increases when the degree of crystallinity of the material decreases. For guided waves, we showed the effect of the specimens’ geometry and the waves frequency on the US attenuation. A significant change of US parameters is observed at the elastic-plastic transition, reflecting changes in the microstructure’s state, in particular in the crystal network. The formation of micro-cavities has a significant impact on the attenuation. The effect of the orientation of macromolecular chains has also been highlighted. The acoustic activity of studied materials is weak but the majority of detected AE signals have been shown to actually originate from plasticity and damage micro-mechanisms. The effect of the strain rate is significant and we have shown that the localization of few signals is possible when the strain rate is high. The acoustic activity presents three phases during tensile tests, which allowed us to propose a model based on the distribution of AE sources on the specimens. The acoustic activity always starts before the yield point showing that plasticity and damage micro-mechanisms are initiated at small strains. The detection of AE signals before the yield point also depends on the crystallinity of the material. The number of AE signals and their energy increase with the degree of crystallinity. A plastic criterion has been proposed. The correlation between the acoustic signals and the different mechanisms is complex, however it seems that the cavitation, the breakage of crystalline lamellae and the martensitic transformation are responsible for the release of acoustic energy.