On relevance of time-dependent Poisson’s ratio for determination of relaxation function parameters

The current study concerns the determination of material constants of a three-dimensional linear viscoelastic model. It is assumed that the constitutive equation utilizes a Prony series as a memory function. A method for the evaluation of relaxation function parameters is presented which can be used for arbitrary loading histories. The proposed methodology is applied to the identification of the viscoelastic constants of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). For that purpose, a number of rheological tests in tension have been performed on ABS standard dogbone specimens. The significance of the time-dependent Poisson’s ratio for the determination of material parameters is investigated. It is found that taking into account the measurements of specimen’s lateral contraction over time has a particularly strong influence on the identified values of parameters responsible for the bulk behavior. Several boundary value problems have been analyzed in order to assess the influence of the material parameter values on the obtained solutions. It is demonstrated that some oversimplifications assumed during the determination of viscoelastic constants can lead to a loss of precision or even wrong results.