Influence of heating rate on evolution of dynamic properties of polymeric laminates

The most common description of the mechanical behaviour of viscoelastic materials is presented using complex dynamic properties. These properties depend on many external factors (temperature, excitation frequency, etc.) and determine the evolution of derivative effects in the structure. The purpose of the conducted investigations is the determination of the influence of heating rate on the dynamic mechanical behaviour of a polymer based composite material under different excitation frequencies and temperatures. The glass transition temperatures and the activation energies of the phase transition were calculated, which allow extending the Arrhenius equation by the heating rate factor. The obtained dependencies could be useful for the estimation of the mechanical and thermal degradations of polymeric composites and, among others, for the determination of the self-heating temperature distributions and their evolution during cyclic loading. The presented results could also be applied for the determination of fatigue, crack growth and residual life of composite structures.