Abstract
Semi-crystalline polymers have complex hierarchical structures. The effects of these structures on the mechanical properties are not sufficiently understood, because of the difficulty in experimental measurement of deformation behavior of microstructures. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the plastic deformation behavior of crystalline phase of isotactic polypropylene (α-phase). We investigated the molecular chain behavior and stress-strain responses under four different directional shear deformations. As a result of simulations, we find that crystalline phase plastically deforms via molecular chain slip and those deformation occurs in four different slip systems ({110}<001>, {010}<001>, {110}<11^^-0> and {010}<100>). Furthermore, each slip system exhibits variation in critical resolved shear stress and yield strain.
