A theory of necking in semi-crystalline polymers

Necking or cold drawing is a smoothed jump in cross-sectional area of long and thin bars (filaments or films) propagating with a constant speed. The necks in polymers, first observed about seventy years ago, are now commonly used in modern processing of polymer films and fibers. Yet till recently there was a lack in fundamental understanding of necking mechanism(s). For semi-crystalline polymers with co-existing amorphous and crystalline phases, recent experiments revealed that such a mechanism is related to unfolding crystalline blocks. Using this idea, this paper develops a theoretical model and includes it in a general continuum framework. Additionally, the paper explains the ‘‘forced’’ (reversible) elasticity observed in slowly propagating polymeric necks, and also briefly analyses the viscoelastic effects and dissipative heat generation when polymer necks propagate fast enough