Shear and extensional rheological evaluation of polylactide-nanographite platelet nanocomposites through constitutive equations

Polymer based nanocomposites are fabricated through the incorporation of nanoscale inorganic solids into polymeric matrix. The focus of this research was on the production and rheological investigation of polylactide (PLA) and nanographite platelets (NGP) based bionanocomposites. In the current study, the linear viscoelastic behaviour of the samples was investigated in order to study the effects of the enhanced dispersion of NGP fillers on the rheological properties of the nanocomposites. Uniaxial extensional experiments were also carried out to analyse the impacts of the nanofillers on linear viscoelastic envelope (LVE) and non-linear viscoelastic behaviour (strain hardening region) of the nanocomposites. Furthermore, in order to provide an accurate prediction of the extensional viscosity behaviour of PLA/NGP nanocomposites, the modelling of strain-hardening behaviour of neat PLA and its nanocomposites was investigated using steady shear viscosity, relaxation spectrum and damping function based on Papanastasiou-Scriven- Macosko (PSM) version of Kaye-Bernstein-Kearsley-Zapas (K-BKZ) model.