UC San Diego

Polyurea is a block copolymer that has been widely used in the coating industry as an abrasion-resistant and energy-dissipative material. Its mechanical properties can be tuned by choosing different variations of diamines and diisocyanates as well as by adding various nano- and micro-inclusions to create polyurea-based composites. Our aim here is to provide the necessary experimentally-based viscoelastic constitutive relations for polyurea and its composites in a format convenient to support computational studies. The polyurea used in this research is synthesized by the reaction of Versalink P-1000 (Air Products) and Isonate 143L (Dow Chemicals). Samples of pure polyurea and polyurea composites are fabricated and then characterized using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Based on the DMA data, master curves of storage and loss moduli are developed using time–temperature superposition. The quality of the master curves is carefully assessed by comparing with the ultrasonic wave measurements and by Kramers–Kronig relations. Based on the master curves, continuous relaxation spectra are calculated, then the time-domain relaxation moduli are approximated from the relaxation spectra. Prony series of desired number of terms for the frequency ranges of interest are extracted from the relaxation modulus. This method for developing cost efficient Prony series has been proven to be effective and efficient for numerous DMA test results of many polyurea/polyurea-based material systems, including pure polyurea with various stoichiometric ratios, polyurea with milled glass inclusions, polyurea with hybrid nano-particles and polyurea with phenolic microbubbles. The resulting viscoelastic models are customized for the frequency ranges of interest, reference temperature and desired number of Prony terms, achieving both computational accuracy and low cost. The method is not limited to polyurea-based systems. It can be applied to other similar polymers systems.