DESCRIPTION OF THE SHAPE MEMORY EFFECT
OF RADIATION-MODIFIED POLYMERS UNDER
THERMOMECHANICAL ACTION

D. A. Chernous, S. V. Shil'ko, and
Yu. M. Pleskachevskii

UDC 539.3

The "shape memory" effect of crystallizing polymer materials 
is simulated. The polymer is considered to be an inhomogeneous medium 
with a moving boundary (temperature-dependent phase composition). 
Using a model based on the "frozen strain" hypothesis, the temperature 
dependences of stresses under isometric heating and cooling have been 
obtained. On the basis of the known data on the influence of 
-irradiation on the thermomechanical characteristics the dependences 
of thermorelaxation and thermoshrinkage stresses on the absorbed dose 
for high-density polyethylene have been found.

V. A. Bely Institute of Mechanics of Metal Polymer Systems, 
National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 32a Kirov Str., Gomel', 240050, 
Belarus; email: Shilko_mpri@mail.ru. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii 
Zhurnal, Vol. 77, No. 1, pp. 7-11, January-February, 2004. 
Original article submitted July 30, 2003.