preprints.org > chemistry and materials science > biomaterials > doi: 10.20944/preprints202211.0191.v1

Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 9 November 2022 / Approved: 10 November 2022 / Online: 10 November 2022 (05:58:50 CET)

The reported study was devoted to the investigation of viscoelastic behavior for solid and porous ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) under compression. The obtained experimental stress curves were interpreted using a two-term Prony series to represent the superposition of two coexisting activation processes corresponding to long molecular (~160 s) and short structural (~20 s) time scales, respectively, leading to good statistical correlation with the observations. In the case of porous polymer, the internal strain redistribution during relaxation was quantified using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) analysis. The strongly inhomogeneous deformation of the porous polymer was found not to affect the relaxation times. In order to generalize the results to three dimensions, X-ray tomography was used to examine the porous structure at the macro- and micro-scale levels. DIC analysis revealed positive correlation between the applied force and relative density. The apparent stiffness variation for UHMWPE foams with mixed open and closed cells was described using a newly proposed three-term expression. Furthermore, the in situ tensile loading and X-ray scattering study was applied for isotropic solid UHMWPE specimens to investigate their parameters of internal structure during orientation and stress relaxation process at another mode.

UHMWPE; relative density; porosity; stress relaxation; operando analysis; Prony series; X-ray to-mography; Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS); Dyben 1.0 miniature 1 kN universal mechanical testing

Chemistry and Materials Science, Biomaterials

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