Application of a nonlinear viscoelastic model to glassy, particulate-filled polymers

In previous studies, a nonlinear viscoelastic formalism for unfilled glassy polymers was developed, which employed a potential energy material clock. A wide variety of responses ranging from temperature-dependent mechanical yield to enthalpy relaxation could be predicted accurately with one physical parameter set. The current investigation assessed the applicability of this approach to highly filled polymers (over 50 vol %). The particulate composites were treated as homogeneous continua, and model parameters were extracted directly from characterization tests developed for unfilled polymers. The predictions agreed surprisingly well with experimental data. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.