Development of a stochastic constitutive model for prediction of postyield softening in glassy polymers.

A stochastic constitutive model has been developed that explicitly acknowledges the nanometer size dynamic heterogeneity of glassy materials, where the distribution of the viscoelastic relaxation times emerges naturally as a result of the dynamic heterogeneity. A set of stochastic differential equations for local stresses and entropy describing behavior of a mesoscopic domain are developed, and the observed macroscopic response of the material is obtained as an average of an ensemble of domains. The stochastic constitutive model naturally predicts and provides a mechanism for the postyield stress softening and its dependence on physical aging that is observed during constant strain rate uniaxial deformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]