Crazing to shear deformation transitions

Some of the most important early experimental observations were of transitions from the quasi-brittle crazing deformation mode to the ductile shear deformation mechanisms with changes in the experimental conditions, such as temperature and strain rate, as well as in polymer variables, such as polymer backbone architecture, blend composition, crosslinking and physical aging state of the polymer glass. One of the strengths of the model of craze growth outlined above is that it allows one to make sense out of some experimentally observed craze-to-shear transitions that had previously defied explanation . The idea behind this explanation is quite simple One writes an expression for the shear yield stress, viz  

It is usual to assume that the shear yield stress has the same temperature dependence and strain rate dependence as the flow stress of the polymer in the active zone of the craze, i.e., n, = n, and in fact usually one go even further and sets How- 

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