To improve the understanding of polymers deformation mechanisms, it is necessary to be able to monitor and measure in real time the microstructure of a test specimen under mechanical stress. Indeed, during deformation, the material undergoes microstructural modifications.

There is therefore a major interest in determining the importance of the microstructure and its evolution on material macroscopic behavior. For these purposes, and always with the idea of modeling the behavior of the material as accurately as possible, it was then considered to develop a device coupling both the VideoTraction® videometric measurement and a Raman spectroscopic measurement (allowing real time visualization of materials microstructure: texture, crystalline phases, crystallinity, volume damage, internal stresses…) during deformation.

Example on the case of a POM:

 Illustration of the evolution of crystallinity rate and volume damage as a function of the strain during a tensile test at a constant true strain rate (10-3 s-1).

Thanks to the financial support of the FEDER and the Grand Est region, we have developed a materials database (MIB project) listing all the data relating to the macro and microstructure of a number of materials.