Thermoplastic polymer-matrix composites, such as carbon woven fabric reinforced poly(phenylene sulphide) (C/PPS), are increasingly used in the aircraft industry. Primary structural applications, however, are limited due to uncertainty concerning the long-term behaviour. Recent work indicated a progressive creep response over time, which would render these materials unusable for such applications. However, the effect of physical ageing was neglected, which is well known to alleviate the creep behaviour and hence physical ageing is rigorously included in this study on the long-term creep response of C/PPS. Short-term tensile creep tests in the bias direction were performed at temperatures of 50, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80\(^{\circ}\mbox{C}\) to obtain a master curve using the time–temperature superposition principle. Ordinary horizontal shifting failed to produce a smooth curve and therefore three alternative approaches were used and compared. The physical ageing rate was, however, characterised with horizontal shifting only at 50\(^{\circ}\mbox{C}\) and was implemented by means of the effective time theory (Struik, 1977) to correct the momentary master curves for the influence of physical ageing. The resulting predictions are more realistic and demonstrate that the structural changes in a material reduce the creep rate over time. Hence, the long-term creep compliance tends to increase asymptotically towards a finite value, in contrast to the unbounded momentary response.

热塑性聚合物基复合材料，例如碳纤维织物增强的聚苯硫醚（C / PPS），在飞机工业中越来越多地使用。然而，由于长期行为的不确定性，主要的结构应用受到限制。最近的工作表明随着时间的推移会逐渐发生蠕变，这将使这些材料无法用于此类应用。然而，物理老化的影响被忽略了，众所周知这可以缓解蠕变行为，因此，本研究严格地考虑了C / PPS长期蠕变响应的物理老化。在温度为50、60、65、70、75和80的温度下执行了在偏置方向上的短期拉伸蠕变测试。（^ {\ circ} \ mbox {C} \）使用时间-温度叠加原理获得主曲线。普通的水平移动无法产生平滑的曲线，因此使用了三种替代方法并进行了比较。然而，物理老化率的特征是仅在50 \（^ {\ circ} \ mbox {C} \）处水平移动，并通过有效时间理论（Struik，1977）实施以校正瞬时主曲线身体衰老的影响。所得的预测更加实际，并表明材料的结构变化会随着时间的推移降低蠕变速率。因此，与无穷的瞬时响应相比，长期蠕变柔量趋于渐近地朝向有限值增加。