Robert A. Riggleman, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1415 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI 53706 and Juan De Pablo, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706.
The response of polymer glasses to deformation has received much attention in recent years. Previous works have shown that strain applied to a polymer glass can destroy energy barriers that impede relaxation on the potential energy landscape. However, less attention has been placed on the response of a polymer glass to an applied stress, as in a creep experiment. We have performed molecular simulations of the non-linear creep of a coarse-grained polymer glass in both compression and extension, and we study the effects of the applied stress on the dynamics of our system. We find dynamic enhancement up to a factor of 100 compared to the equilibrium polymer glass at the glass transition temperature, Tg, in both compression and extension. We find that the free volume changes induced by the stress are not indicative of the changes in dynamics; however, the strainrate is strongly correlated with the dynamics.