Integration of Atomistic Simulation with Experiment Using Time−Temperature Superposition for a Cross-Linked Epoxy Network

27 June 2019, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Quantitative comparison of atomistic simulations with experiment for glass-forming materials is made difficult by the vast mismatch between computationally and experimentally accessible timescales. Recently, we presented results for an epoxy network showing that the computation of specific volume vs. temperature as a function of cooling rate in conjunction with the time–temperature superposition principle (TTSP) enables direct quantitative comparison of simulation with experiment. Here, we follow-up and present results for the translational dynamics of the same material over a temperature range from the rubbery to the glassy state. Using TTSP, we obtain results for translational dynamics out to 109 s in TTSP reduced time – a macroscopic timescale. Further, we show that the mean squared displacement (MSD) trends of the network atoms can be collapsed onto a master curve at a reference temperature. The computational master curve is compared with the experimental master curve of the creep compliance for the same network using literature data. We find that the temporal features of the two data sets can be quantitatively compared providing an integrated view relating molecular level dynamics to the macroscopic thermophysical measurement. The time-shift factors needed for the superposition also show excellent agreement with experiment further establishing the veracity of the approach.

Keywords

Glass Transition
Epoxy Networks
MD Simulations
Dynamics
Creep Compliance
Atomistic Simulations

Supplementary materials

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EpoxyMSD SP
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EpoxyMSD Video
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