The main intention of this thesis work was to investigate the effect of strain rate on continuum and pre-cracked polymer failure. Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) was chosen to study experimentally and numerically. In order to cover wide range of strain rates, four specific strain rates were selected for the uniaxial tensile tests. To perform the tests, cyclic loading and unloading with relaxation was utilized in the room temperature for continuum specimen and for pre-cracked specimen monotonic tensile test till failure was utilized. Through Digital Image Correlation (DIC) the local strain distribution was assessed through the specimen and the deformation was compared with simulation results. Based on the extensive literature review of material models from PolyUMod library among Viscoplastic models, the Three Network Viscoplastic (TNV) model was selected to proceed with the calibration. The motivation behind choosing TNV model is it's capability of capturing load-unload curves, different strain rates as well as non-linear responses. Furthermore, it was seen that among Viscoplastic models, TNV has the lowest average errors which plays a vital role in this case as the accuracy of FE simulation directly depends on the calibration results. From the experimental results it was safe to say that with increasing strain rates LDPE films tend to get stiffer and stronger both in continuum and pre-cracked. Through the calibration it was seen that the predicted curves were in reasonable agreement with experimental ones. Hence,the calibrated model was exported as python script into Abaqus CAE to perform the simulations. The comparison was done and discussed in details between the simulation and experimental data in three orientations; MD (Machine Direction), CD (Cross Direction) and 45 direction.

As the plastic and packaging industry is looking to increase the longevity of plastic products as well as recycling used material, there is a need to understand how material properties respond and change during long periods of mechanical loading. Physical tensile experiments on thin plant-based High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) are conducted with the intent of capturing relaxation behavior from a short-term (1-3 hours) and long-term (29-56 days) perspective. Experimental tests aiming to capture short-term relaxation behavior prior to necking at various loads are made on a MTS Qtest100 tensile-machine in the laboratory at BTH. Long-term experiments are conducted on a custom-built tensile machine stationed in the author’s apartment.   Data gathered from the experiments are swiftly converted into true stress and strain based on the derived mathematical expressions in preparation for computer simulations, i.e. modeling the behavior using two expressions and the Finite Element Method (FEM) in the general purpose FE-software AbaqusTM R2020. The loading curve, i.e. uniform deformation, prior to geometrical necking, was modeled using the Ramberg-Osgood expression and captured the mechanical non-linear behavior accurately. Two expressions are initially used to capture the stress decay, referred to as relaxation behavior: the first one is Guiu and Pratt and the second one is a data-generated Four Parameter Logistics (4PL) expression. A comparison between the two expressions, show that the 4PL expression captures the entire short-term behavior of the experiments. The 4PL expression could also predict the long-term behavior without further calibration. The Guiu and Pratt expression could not predict the behavior as accurately as the 4PL expression.   Using the converted physical data to calibrate a Parallel Rheological Framework (PRF) model in the MCalibration software proved to be time consuming. A combination of the Ramberg Osgood and 4PL expression is used to re-create the converted physical experiment data which reduces both noise and size of the datasets dramatically. The calibration time was significantly reduced because the datasets were much smaller. With a material model calibrated using the re-created data, simulations could be conducted in Abaqus, creating a virtual twin of the physical experiments. Results from the physical experiments are compared to the results of the virtual simulations proving that the PRF model can capture the relaxation behavior shown in the short-term experiments. The model also works for long-term relaxation behavior and only a slight increase in stress relaxation compared to the physical experiments was observed. / I dagens plast och paketeringsindustri finns ett behov att öka produkters livstid samt att använda återvunnet material. Med detta finns då behovet av att bättre förstå hur plasternas egenskaper förändras under långa lastperioder. Fysiska tester kommer därav genomföras med tunna testbitar gjorda av organiskt HDPE med målet att fånga spännings relaxationen från både ett kort (1-3 timmar) till ett långt (29-56 dagar) tidsperspektiv. Experimentella tester som fångar det korta tidsperspektivet görs med olika lastfall före “necking” och genomförs på en MTS Qtest100 dragprovsmaskin på labbet på campus BTH. Tester som fångar det långa tidsperspertivet görs på en dragprovsmaskin som är tillverkad för detta syftet och är stationerad i författarens lägenhet.  Datan som är tagen från experimenten är först konverterade till sann spänning och töjning för att sedan modeleras utav två matematiska uttryck och en model i Finita Element Metod programmet AbaqusTM R2020. Det matematiska uttrycket Ramberg-Osgood användes för att modellera pålastningskurvan före “necking” och gorde detta tillfredställande. Två uttryck jämfördes för att modellera relaxationskurvan, ena var Guiu and Pratt uttrycket och det andra var en data-genererad Fyra Parameter Logistik (4PL) uttryck. Jämförelsen visade att 4PL uttrycket fångade hela kurvaturen ur det korta tidsperspektivet. Det visade sig även att 4PL uttrycket kunde prediktera det långa tidsperspektivet utan att göra några extra kailbreringarna från de korta tidsperspektivets kalibrering. Guiu and Pratts uttryck hade problem i bade de korta och långa tidsperspektivet.  Med den omvandlade datan från de fyska testerna börjades kalibreringen av en “Parallel Rheological Model” (PRF)  materialmodel i programmet MCalibration. Detta visade sig kräva mycket tid då datafilerna från de fysiska testera var mycket stora och hade även en del brus. Med detta gjordes valet att använda Ramberg Osgood uttrycket samt det data-genererade 4PL uttrycket för att skapa matematiskt beräknade testdata för att minska mängden datapunkter samt ta bort bruset. Med de nya datafilerna blev kalibreringstiden av materialmodellen mycket mindre och det kunde användas för att skapa en “virtual twin” av dragprovsanordningen. Resultatet från simuleringarna av den virtuella dragprovsbiten visar på att modellen fångar den korta tidsaspeketen väldigt bra. För det långa tisperspektivet fungerade modellen men med lite större stress relaxation jämfört med de fysiska experimenten.