Characterisation and FE Modelling of the Sorption and Swelling Behaviour of Polyamide 6 in Water.

Polyamide 6 (PA6) is known to absorb water from its environment due to its chemical structure. This water absorption leads to a change in the mechanical properties as well as an increase in volume (swelling) of the polyamide. In the present work, the sorption and swelling behaviour of polyamide 6 in different conditioning environments was experimentally investigated on different part geometries to develop a finite element (FE) method on the basis of the measured data that numerically calculates the sorption and swelling behaviour.