A comparison between simple shear, elongation, and equal biaxial extension deformations

The rheology of a high molecular weight polyisobutylene “Vistanex” L‐80 is measured at 20°C under constant stress creep loading in simple shear and simple elongation and compared with published data for biaxial extension. These data can be reduced to a single curve by the application of simple geometric parameters and instability during extensional flows may be interpreted on the basis of the Considère construction. The results are further extended by dynamic measurements to estimate the viscoelastic response of this material over a time scale of nine orders of magnitude. The rheological response shows an approximately linear relationship with stress up to elongation strains of 1.0, and, because of this, the results do not illuminate the present controversy over the selection of different equations of state to represent non‐linear polymer melt flow. However, this body of data, which the authors believe to be the most comprehensive presently available in terms of strain level and deformation geometry, does demonstrate that a viscoelastic polymer can respond to different deformation geometries in a simple manner.