Cyclic and monotonic testing of free and constrained recovery properties of a chemically crosslinked acrylate

A chemically crosslinked acrylate network was submitted to various thermomechanical strain and stress recoveries whilechanging the experimental parameters in order to better define the benefits and the limits of using chemically crosslinked polymers for multicycle applications or applications under external constraints. The results showed that the free recoveries and the constrained recoveries remained the same at the first cycle and during the next ones. It was also shown that the low stress usually generated by a crosslinked network when submitted to a constrained recovery can be significantly increased by choosing suitable experimental conditions.