Molecular Dynamics Study of Mechanical Properties of Polyvinylidene Fluoride Polymer by Tensile Test and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis

Polyvinylidene fluoride polymer poses unique properties such as piezoelectric and high mechanical, thermal, and chemical resistance due to the consisting of the most electronegative element, fluorine, in its combination. In this paper, molecular dynamics simulation of amorphous polyvinylidene fluoride polymer containing polarized monomers is utilized to study its mechanical properties. Firstly, by using tensile test, elastic modulus and ultimate stress are determined and their changes due to temperature and strain rate change are studied. Then, by using dynamic mechanical analysis, tensile and shear dynamic complex modulus are calculated and their changes are studied while strain rate changes. This is for the first time that dynamic mechanical analysis is simulated by molecular dynamics. In addition to determining the viscoelastic properties of the material, straight forward elimination of temperature disturbances due to the sinusoidal pattern of stress and strain functions in terms of time is one of the advantages of the dynamic mechanical analysis. Consistency between simulated and actual trends shows the efficiency of the proposed model.