On cavitation and macroscopic behaviour of amorphous polymer-rubber blends.

The macroscopic behaviour of rubber-modified polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was investigated by taking into account the microdeformation mechanisms of rubber cavitation. The dependence of the macroscopic stress-strain behaviour of matrix deformation on the cavitation of rubber particles was discussed. A phenomenological elastic-viscoplastic model was used to model the behaviour of the matrix material, while the rubber particles were modelled with the hyperelasticity theory. A two-phase composite material with a periodic arrangement of reinforcing particles of a circular unit cell section was considered. Finite-element analysis was used to determine the local stresses and strains in the two-phase composite. In order to describe the cavitation of the rubber particles, a criterion of void nucleation is implemented in the finite-element (FE) code. A comparison of the numerically predicted response with experimental result indicates that the numerical homogenisation analysis gives satisfactory prediction results.