Temperature effect on the mechanical behavior of acrylic polymers under quasi-static and dynamic loading

The mechanical behavior of acrylic polymers at elevated temperature was investigated. Four acrylic polymers were tested at high strain rate by using compression Hopkinson bar and at quasi-static strain rate by using an Instron servo hydraulic axial testing machine with the testing temperature from 218 K to 393 K. The results show that the mechanical property of acrylic polymers depends heavily on the testing temperature. The yield stress and Young's modulus were found to decrease with the increase of temperature at low strain rate. At very low temperature, the materials display typical brittle fracture; however their plasticity improves remarkably at high temperatures. The predictions of the mechanical behavior including the effect of temperature and strain rate using a proposed theoretical model have a good agreement with experimental results.