Viscoelastic–viscoplastic model with ductile damage accounting for tension–compression asymmetry and hydrostatic pressure effect for polyamide 66

This paper proposes a model for predicting the complex inelastic mechanical response of polyamide 66. Polyamide 66 is a semi-crystalline pressure-sensitive polymer that exhibits asymmetric yielding behavior, in which the yield strength is slightly higher in compression. With this in mind, an $I_1$-$J_2$ yield function considering the asymmetric behavior and the hydrostatic pressure effect is presented and integrated into a phenomenological viscoelastic–viscoplastic model accounting for ductile damage. The corresponding thermodynamic framework and constitutive laws are discussed. Then, an experimental approach is presented to identify the model parameters through mechanical tests with different loading paths to capture the active mechanisms. The experimental findings obtained from uni-axial and multi-axial (tension-torsion) mechanical tests and the numerical model are used in an optimization algorithm to identify the model parameters. A parametric analysis is performed to study the effect of the asymmetric behavior on the state variables under different loading conditions using the identified parameters. The present model responses are in good agreement with the experimental data, and the combination of the experimental and numerical results demonstrates and states the asymmetric behavior of polyamide at relative humidity (RH) of 50%, which is captured by the suggested model. It is also worth pointing out that the parametric study conducted on a notched plate using finite element simulations showcases the structural computation capabilities of the proposed model.