Title
Fatigue Characterization of Polycarbonate under Stress-Controlled Cyclic Load
Authors
T Krishnamoorthi , A Johnney Mertens
Abstract
Polycarbonate (PC) is a widely used engineering thermoplastic that exhibits time-dependent viscoelastic behaviour, making it highly susceptible to fatigue damage under cyclic loading conditions. Existing studies are largely restricted to simplified loading conditions and short-term fatigue investigations, and the complete characterisation of hysteresis energy strain loss under cyclic loading remains limited in the literature. In the present study, the fatigue behaviour of injection-moulded unfilled polycarbonate was experimentally investigated using specimens prepared in accordance with ASTM D638. The tensile test was conducted at a strain rate of 5 mm/min, and the fatigue test was conducted under stress-controlled cyclic loading with a stress ratio of R = 0.1, an applied stress amplitude of 30 MPa, and a frequency of 5 Hz. Tensile testing revealed the confirmation of adequate mechanical strength and considerable ductility of PC with a tensile strength of 62.8 MPa and an elongation at break of 31.5 %. Fatigue test using the proportional limit as the stress input, high-cycle fatigue tests revealed a progressive increase in maximum strain, from 0.01534 mm/mm at 1000 cycles to 0.01677 mm/mm at 32000 cycles, reflecting accumulating plastic deformation. Correspondingly, the hysteresis loop area decreased from 0.006152 to 0.005547 MJ/m3, indicating reduced energy dissipation and initial cyclic stabilisation, followed by microstructural damage and stiffness degradation at higher cycles. These findings highlight the interplay between strain accumulation and energy dissipation in governing the fatigue behaviour of polycarbonate.
Keywords
Polycarbonate; cyclic loading; hysteresis loop; fatigue damage; viscoelastic behaviour.
Full Text
References
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