Numerical Simulations for Damage and Failure of a Polymer Material Subjected to Thermal Fatigue Loading

This study proposes a novel numerical approach to simulate damage accumulation and failure in polymer materials under thermal fatigue, using an entropy-based damage criterion. Unlike the many experimental studies in this area, few numerical simulations exist due to the complexity of modeling thermal fatigue. In our method, thermal and mechanical stresses arising from thermal expansion mismatches and temperature gradients are modeled through a coupled simulation approach. A viscoelastic constitutive equation is implemented in ABAQUS via a user-defined subroutine to capture damage progression. The method includes surface and internal thermal conduction, thermal deformation, and time–temperature superposition using reduced viscosity, enabling accurate simulation under varying thermal conditions. The results show that localized thermal stresses induced by temperature gradients lead to progressive damage and failure. This study demonstrates the first successful numerical simulation of thermal fatigue-induced damage in polymer materials. The proposed framework reduces the need for extensive experiments and offers insights into residual stress prediction and durability evaluation, contributing to polymer design and application in high-performance environments.