A 1D physically based constitutive model for two-way shape memory effects in semicrystalline networks

Abstract

Two-way shape memory effects (2 W-SMEs) have been recently demonstrated in several semicrystalline networks, the underlying mechanism of which is revealed as crystallization induced elongation (CIE) and melting induced contraction (MIC). In this article, a one-dimensional physically based constitutive model, considering the crystallization micro-mechanism at chain-scale, is proposed to describe the CIE and MIC phenomena, as well as the stress-strain-temperature relations of semicrystalline polymers in typical two-way shape memory cycles. The overall model is implemented into Mathematica and a quantitative evaluation of the model is performed by comparisons with the two-way shape memory behaviors of several kinds of semicrystalline networks.

Keywords:

• Semicrystalline shape memory polymers
• two-way shape memory effects
• micro-molecular chain crystallization
• crystal morphology
• constitutive model

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of Research and Application of Anti-Flotation Technology of Subway Station in Fractured Rock Foundation by the Xuzhou Metro Group Co. LTD.