Micro-mechanical modeling of semi-crystalline polymers: A review
Mohsen Mirkhalaf, Rahele Vadizadeh
Abstract
Highly heterogeneous and complex micro-structure of semi-crystalline polymers challenges accurate prediction of their macroscopic behavior. Micro-mechanical models establish a relationship between the micro-structure and macroscopic properties (structure–property relationship), and are able of predicting not only the macro-scale behavior, but also the evolution of the micro-structure. Therefore, micro-mechanical modeling can be used as a virtual experiment to predict the overall behavior of semi-crystalline polymers, where the effect of any single micro-structural parameter can be investigated. These parameters include morphological information about distribution of amorphous and crystalline phases, and constitutive properties of both phases. In this review paper, two main categories of micro-mechanical models, including mean-field and full-field models, are reviewed in detail. Three different groups of mean-field models, namely single-phase, two-phase, and three-phase models are discussed. Besides, the morphology of semi-crystalline polymers together with different deformation mechanisms, involved in different deformation regimes, are illustrated.