Tensile creep of a long-fiber glass mat thermoplastic composite. I. Short-term tests

This work is part of a larger experimental program aimed at developing a semi‐empirical constitutive model for predicting creep in random glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) composites. The tensile creep response of a long‐fiber GMT material has been characterized for 3‐ and 6‐mm thick material. Tensile tests showed that the variability within and between plaques are comparable with an overall variability of about 6% and 8% for the 3‐ and 6‐mm thick materials, respectively. The thicker material exhibited slightly higher variability and directional dependence due to greater flow during molding of the plaques. Short‐term creep tests consisting of 30 min creep and recovery, respectively, were performed over the stress range between 5 and 60 MPa. Three tests for determining the linear viscoelastic region were considered which showed that the 3‐ and 6‐mm thick GMT are linear viscoelastic up to 20 and 25 MPa respectively. The 6‐mm thick GMT consisting of a higher fiber weight fraction was linear over wider stress range. Furthermore, it was found that plastic strains were accumulated during creep, which suggests that a nonlinear viscoelastic–viscoplastic model would be more appropriate for long‐term creep at relatively high stresses, which will be presented in our companion paper. The magnitude of the plastic strains developed in the creep tests presented here was lower because a single specimen was loaded at multiple stress level over short durations. Hence, a nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive model has been developed for the two thickness materials. POLYM. COMPOS., 2009. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers