Ratcheting behavior of UHMWPE reinforced by carbon nanofibers (CNF) and hydroxyapatite (HA): Experiment and simulation

Uniaxial tensile tests were performed to investigate the mechanical properties of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) with different modification conditions. It was found that the different modification conditions have great influence on the mechanical properties of the UHMWPE. Subsequently, the uniaxial ratcheting behaviors of the UHMWPE/CNF and UHMWPE/HA composite materials were observed under the stress-controlled cyclic tensile condition at room temperature. The dependence of uniaxial ratcheting of composite materials on the mean stress, stress amplitude, stress rate and nano-material content was investigated. The results show that the ratcheting strain and its rate of the two composite materials increase as the mean stress and stress amplitude increase, however, the ratcheting strain and its rate decrease with the increase of the stress rate and nano-material content. Furthermore, it is found that the ratcheting strain of the UHMWPE/HA composite material is more remarkable than that of the UHMWPE/CNF composite material. A new viscoplastic constitutive model is proposed to describe the ratcheting behavior of the UHMWPE composite materials. In this model, a new viscosity function and modified kinematic hardening law were employed. Comparison of simulation and experimental results shows that the simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results.