Modelling of rate-dependent inelasticity and damage in semi-crystalline polymers using an Eulerian framework

The present paper concerns the mechanical response of semi-crystalline polymers during cyclic loading, and it includes both modelling and experimental testing. The model is Eulerian in the sense that it is independent of measures of total deformation and plastic/inelastic deformations. It is able to account for such essential phenomena as strain-rate dependence, work hardening, and damage. The model was applied to uniaxial tension tests performed on high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is a semi-crystalline polymer widely used in the industry. Two types of tests were conducted: monotonic tests, and loading–unloading tests. The model was able to reproduce the experimental results very well. The proposed model was also implemented as a UMAT in Abaqus, including an analytic tangent. The UMAT was used for simulating two 3D geometries. The implementation seems to be robust, and no convergence problems were observed.