Viscoelastic model with complex rheological behavior (VisCoR): incremental formulation

Abstract A thermo-rheologically complex linear viscoelastic material model, accounting for temperature and degree of cure (DoC), is developed starting with series expansion of the Helmholtz free energy and systematically implementing simplifying assumptions regarding the material behavior. In addition to the temperature and DoC dependent shift factor present in rheologically simple models, the derived novel model contains three cure and temperature dependent functions. The first function is identified as the rubbery modulus. The second is a weight factor to the transient integral term in the model and reflects the current temperature and cure state, whereas the third function is under the sign of the convolution integral, thus affecting the “memory” of the material. An incremental form of this model is presented which, due to improved approximation inside the time increment, has better numerical convergence than most of the similar forms. Parametric analysis is performed simulating stress development in a polymer, geometrically constrained in the mold during curing and cool-down. The importance of using proper viscoelastic model is shown, and the role of parameters in the model is revealed and discussed. Graphical Abstract