Microscopic view of accelerated dynamics in deformed polymer glasses.
A molecular level analysis of segmental trajectories obtained from molecular dynamics simulations is used to obtain the full relaxation time spectrum in aging polymer glasses subject to three different deformation protocols. As in experiments, dynamics can be accelerated by several orders of magnitude, and a narrowing of the distribution of relaxation times during creep is directly observed. Additionally, the acceleration factor describing the transformation of the relaxation time distributions is computed and found to obey a universal dependence on the strain, independent of age and deformation protocol.
Warren
Mya
M
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
Rottler
Jörg
J