We study by dielectric spectroscopy the molecular dynamics
of relaxation
processes during plastic flow of glassy polymers up to the strain
hardening regime for three different protocols of deformation. The
measured dielectric spectra cover 4 decades in frequencies and allow
us to measure the evolution as a function of the applied strain of
the dominant relaxation time τα and of the
width w
τ of the distribution of
relaxation times. The first protocol is performed at constant strain
rate λ̇. We confirm that for increasing strain both τα and w
τ first decrease,
reaching a minimum in the stress softening regime before increasing
in the strain hardening regime. In the second protocol we stop the
deformation at some point λ
w
in
the strain hardening regime, and we let the sample age for a waiting
time t
w
, during which
the applied stress remains high. Upon resuming the deformation at
constant λ̇, stress–strain displays a yield stress
and a stress softening regime comparable in magnitude to that of the
reference protocol before rejoining the reference curve. In contrast,
the dielectric spectrum measured during the second protocol recovers
the one measured during the reference curve much later than strain–stress.
In the third protocol the stress is canceled during t
w
. In this case, after recovering the
constant λ̇ the dielectric spectrum and the stress–strain
curve rejoin almost immediately the reference curve. We interpret
these different behaviors as the consequence of changes in the free
energy barriers for α-relaxation induced by the stress applied
to the sample. These changes are the sum of two contributions: (a)
The first one, which allows for plastic flow, is due to the applied
stress σ and, according to a recently published theory, scales
as −σ2. (b) The second contribution κ(λ),
which is a function of the chain orientation at the monomer level,
is positive and is responsible for the stress hardening regime. The
first one evolves immediately upon varying the stress, whereas the
second relaxes very slowly upon cessation of the applied stress. Our
interpretation for the results of the third protocol is that aging
dynamics is frozen when the stress is removed, as it is known for
polycarbonate at room temperature. Our experiments set precise conditions
for a theory of strain hardening.