Effect of strain rate on compressive characteristics of polylactic acid resin foam

Abstract

The effect of strain rate on the compressive properties, such as strength and absorbed energy, of polylactic acid resin foam was experimentally studied by carrying out the compression tests at various strain rates from 0.001 to 760 s-1. The polylactic acid resin is a kind of plant-derived plastics with low environmental load. It was found that the flow stress of polylactic acid resin foam during compressive deformation and the absorbed energy up to the strain of 0.6 increased with the increase of strain rates. The compressive strength of the foam was also strongly dependent on the density of specimen, despite the same material. Strain and strain-rate depending constitutive equation of polylactic acid resin foam was derived from true stress- true strain curves observed from compression tests at the wide range of strain rates.

Keywords

• ploylactic acid resin foam
• impact
• absorbed energy
• strain rate dependence
• constitutive equation