Strain-hardening behavior of polycarbonate in the glassy state

This paper presents an experimental characterization of the three-dimensionalstrain-hardening response of polycarbonate in the glassy state. Using a specialmechanical conditioning technique large homogeneous deformations were ob-tained in tension compression and shear. The experimental results are comparedto a number of existing network models. It was found that the state-of deforma-tiondependence of the strain-hardening response was adequately described byneo-Hookean behavior with a shear modulus G =26 MPa. Up to thedeforma-tionsapplied in this study no sign of a finite extensibility of the entanglementnetwork was observed.