Estimation of biaxial tensile and compression behavior of polypropylene using molecular dynamics simulation

The polymeric materials in general exhibit strong time–temperature dependence and viscoelastic behavior. The time–temperature superposition principle is typically used to estimate the long-term viscoelastic behavior. In addition, Mises criterion and Tresca criterion have been proposed to estimate the yield or failure stresses in a multiaxial stress state and Christensen failure criterion can be applied in the case of different tensile and compressive strengths. In this study, using molecular dynamics method, uniaxial and biaxial tensile and compression test simulations were performed for polypropylene at various strain rates and temperatures. It was observed that the compressive fracture stresses were higher than the tensile fracture stresses. In addition, the fracture stress was high at a low temperature and high strain rate and these fracture stresses are in good agreement with Christensen failure criterion curves. Furthermore, the long-term viscoelastic behavior can almost be predicted from the short-term viscoelastic behaviors at three different temperatures using time–temperature superposition principle. But, the simulations at a wide range of temperatures is important to predict the more accurate long-term viscoelastic behavior.