Applied Mechanics of Polymers

Applied Mechanics of Polymers: Properties, Processing, and Behavior provides readers with a thorough overview of the properties, mechanical behaviors, and modeling techniques for accurately predicting the behaviors of polymeric materials. The book starts with an introduction to polymers, covering their history, chemistry and physics, and the various types and applications of polymers. It also covers the general properties of polymers and common processing and manufacturing processes involved with them. Subsequent chapters delve into specific mechanical behaviors of polymers such as linear elasticity, hyperelasticity, creep, viscoelasticity, failure, and fracture. The book concludes with chapters discussing electroactive polymers, hydrogels, and the mechanical characterization of polymers. Applied Mechanics of Polymers: Properties, Processing, and Behavior is a useful reference text that will benefit graduate students, postdocs, researchers, and engineers in the mechanics of materials, polymer science, mechanical engineering, and material science. Provides examples of real-word applications that demonstrate the use of models in designing polymer-based componentsIncludes access to a companion site from where readers can download FEA and MATLAB code, FEA simulation files, videos, and other supplemental materialFeatures end-of-chapter summaries with design and analysis guidelines, practice problem sets based on real-life situations, and both analytical and computational examples to bridge academic and industrial applications