The viscoelastic behavior of melts of virgin and recycled polycarbonate reinforced with short glass fibers

Three series of shear oscillatory tests are performed on polycarbonate melts reinforced with short glass fibers at the temperatures T-1 = 250 and T-2 = 290 degreesC. The content of glass fibers ranges from 0 to 20 wt.%. In the first series, virgin polycarbonate is used, in the other series, dynamic tests are performed on recycled polymer, whereas in the third series, a mixture of virgin with recycled polycarbonates is employed. Constitutive equations are derived for the viscoelastic behavior of a polymer melt at isothermal deformations with small strains. A polymer is treated as an equivalent transient network of strands that rearrange at random times as they are agitated by thermal fluctuations. The time-dependent response of a network is determined by four adjustable parameters that are found by fitting the experimental data. Excellent agreement is demonstrated between the observations and the results of numerical simulation. The study focuses on the effects of temperature and filler content on the material constants in the stress-strain relations. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.