Viscoelastic material characterization and modeling for polyethylene

An extensive set of stress relaxation and constant strain rate tests for characterizing the mechanical responses of a medium density polyethylene and a high density polyethylene that are commonly used in natural gas distribution piping is described and analyzed. The development of coherent master curves for the relaxation modulus, maximum stress, and the time‐to‐failure for pressurized pipes through a combination of both horizontal and vertical shifting is presented. The relaxation data are used to develop a nonlinear Viscoelastic material model. The model is assessed by making comparisons of the predicted stress‐strain response with the measured response in the constant strain rate tests.