Creep behaviors were studied for unsaturated polyester resins (UP) under flexural load, at temperatures near the heat distortion temperature (HDT). The results were analysed by the use of a four element Voigt-Kelvin model which consists of elastic, viscoelastic and viscous contributions;
The effect of temperature on E
1 and E
2 of UP was monotonically decreased with the cross linking density. Arrhenius plots of τ
2 and η
2 for four UP samples gave parallel straight lines, but those of η
3 did not. Creep strains of UP samples were approximately in agreement with the prediction of of the above equation, but a UP sample with low cross linking density indicated viscous behavior owing to the plastic deformation in third term. The values of n in Nutting's equation were monotonically increased with temperature. n values were 0-0.2 at temperatures lower than HDT, so that the third term could be neglected. n values were 0.4-0.5 at higher temperatures than HDT, so that plastic deformation owing to viscous contribution were considerably increased.
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