Mechanical Behavior After Stress Relaxation in PVDF

This study presents the mechanical properties evaluation of two commercial grades of PVDFs, which were extruded with the same parameters but with different cooling temperatures. After processing, stress relaxation with 7% strain was imposed and tensile properties were measured. The cooling temperature after extrusion were 4°C, 23°C and 80°C. Then, the PVDFs were submitted to stress relaxation at 23°C and 7% strain. The as processed and after relaxation samples were characterized by FTIR, XRD, DSC and tensile tests at 23°C. The stress relaxation at 23 °C resulted in no change in volume fraction of crystallinity for PVDF A and B. The XRD and FTIR, for both PVDFs, showed that the crystalline phases were the same, for all cooling conditions and did not change after the stress relaxation. The tensile properties at room temperature showed that the yield stress was a little affect by the cooling temperature, while Young’s Modulus and yield strain were insensible to the cooling temperature. After the stress relaxation, these three tensile properties were slightly affected for both grades.