Prediction of long-term creep behaviour and lifetime of polystyrene by linear extrapolation

The universal creep function derived from the kinetic equations is successful in relating the creep (Ε) to the aging time (ta), coefficient of retardation time (β), and intrinsic time (t0). The relation was used to treat the creep experimental data for polystyrene (PS) specimens which were aged at a given temperature and different times (short-term) and tested at a certain temperature and different stress levels. Then unified master lines were constructed with the treated data and curves according to universal equation. The master lines can be used to predict the long-term creep behavior and lifetime by extrapolating to a required ultimate strain. The verifications of results obtained with this method were shown as well.