Viscoelasticity of textile fibers at finite strains

Experimental data obtained from stress–strain curves of five different textile fibers, at a series of different, constant strain rates covering a range of 61/2 decades have been used to study two methods of nonlinear viscoelastic analysis proposed elsewhere. According to the first of these, time and strain effects are factorizable so that stress σ, strain ε and time t are related by the equation σf1(ε)/ε = f(t),. This is shown to be unsatisfactory with the present materials, but an empirical modification to σf1(ε)/ε = f2(ε) + f(t) is satisfactory. According to the second, general nonlinear viscoelastic behavior can be described by an equation which reduces to the form σ/ε = F1(t) + εF2(t) + ε2F3(t) + when applied to extension at a constant strain rate. This series is shown to be strongly divergent except at fairly small stains. In fact, if it is truncated after about three terms, which are as many as can be estimated with any significance in the present experiments, it is applicable only to strains of about 3–4% and less. Numerical techniques which enable standard statistical procedures to be used have been devised to perform the above analyses and are described in detail.