The stress relaxation of molten PMMA at large deformations and its theoretical interpretation

The stress relaxation behaviour of molten PMMA under large tensile deformations has been studied. Maximum values of the extension ratio were larger than 3.5. Similarly with previous results, the time dependence of the relaxing stress was found to be approximatively the same at all deformations. The deformation dependence was compared with the predictions of a theory byDoi andEdwards as well as with a modification of that theory which proves to agree better with the experimental results.