Nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of active fiber composites

In the present study, viscoelastic response of an active fiber composite (AFC) is investigated by conducting stress relaxation and creep deformation tests, and the quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) constitutive model is used to describe the viscoelastic response of the AFC. The AFC under study consists of unidirectional long piezoelectric ceramic fibers embedded in an epoxy polymer, encapsulated between two Kapton layers with interdigitated surface electrodes. The relaxation and creep experiments are performed by loading the AFC samples along the longitudinal axis of the fibers, under several strain and stress levels at three temperatures, namely 25° C, 50° C, and 75° C. The experimental results reveal the nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of the composite. Next, simulation and prediction of the viscoelastic response, including stress relaxation and creep deformation of the material, are done by using semi-analytical QLV model in which a relaxation time-dependent function is used, which also depends on strain and temperature. The results from the model are compared with those from the experiments. In general, the experimental and simulation results are in good agreement, except in the case of some of the creep responses, where considerable discrepancies are seen between the experimental and analytical approaches. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed in details.