Mechanical properties plastic behavior

Lawley, A. Mechanical properties—Plastic behavior. In Intermetallic Compounds Westbrook, J.H., Ed. R.E. Krieger Huntington, NY, 1977 Chapter 24. 

This paper attempts to further explore the modification of ionic associations by a crystalline ionic plasticizer, such as zinc stearate, at the solid state. Mechanical properties, swelling behavior, and morphological aspects were studied in order to better understand the role of such crystalline polar additives. 

ASTM D4473-01, Standard Test Methods for Plastics Dynamic Mechanical Properties Cure Behavior ... 

In the presence of media, however, glass fibers can become exposed and fiber-matrix adhesion weakened (Figure 1.25 right), which reduces mechanical properties. This behavior, also known as the wicking , is caused by the initial formation of microcracks in the plastic surface. The medium penetrates the material via such microcrack along the glass fibers, thus weakening fiber-matrix adhesion. 

In the preparation and processing of ionomers, plasticizers may be added to reduce viscosity at elevated temperatures and to permit easier processing. These plasticizers have an effect, as well, on the mechanical properties, both in the rubbery state and in the glassy state these effects depend on the composition of the ionomer, the polar or nonpolar nature of the plasticizer and on the concentration. Many studies have been carried out on plasticized ionomers and on the influence of plasticizer on viscoelastic and relaxation behavior and a review of this subject has been given 119]. However, there is still relatively little information on effects of plasticizer type and concentration on specific mechanical properties of ionomers in the glassy state or solid state. 

Aside from ion content, a wide range of properties is available in ionomers by control of various processing variables, such as degree of conversion (neutralization), type of counterion, plasticizer content and thermal treatment. Various examples illustrating possible effects of these variables on mechanical relaxation behavior and on such mechanical properties as stiffness, strength, and time- or energy-to-fracture have been given. 

As an example, for room-temperature applications most metals can be considered to be truly elastic. When stresses beyond the yield point are permitted in the design, permanent deformation is considered to be a function only of applied load and can be determined directly from the stress-strain diagram. The behavior of most plastics is much more dependent on the time of application of the load, the past history of loading, the current and past temperature cycles, and the environmental conditions. Ignorance of these conditions has resulted in the appearance on the market of plastic products that were improperly designed. Fortunately, product performance has been greatly improved as the amount of technical information on the mechanical properties of plastics has increased in the past half century. More importantly, designers have become more familiar with the behavior of plastics rather than... 

Mechanical properties of plastics are invariably time-dependent. Rheology of plastics involves plastics in all possible states from the molten state to the glassy or crystalline state (Chapter 6). The rheology of solid plastics within a range of small strains, within the range of linear viscoelasticity, has shown that mechanical behavior has often been successfully related to molecular structure. Studies in this area can have two objectives (1) mechanical characterization of... 

Time dependence Viscoelastic deformation is a transition type behavior that is characterized by the occurrence of both elastic strain and time-dependent flow. It is the time dependence of the mechanical properties of plastics that makes the behavior of these materials difficult to analyze by mathematical theory. 

The moisture content of a plastic affects such conditions as electrical insulation resistance, dielectric losses, mechanical properties, dimensions, and appearances. The effect on the properties due to moisture content depends largely on the type of exposure (by immersion in water or by exposure to high humidity), the shape of the product, and the inherent behavior properties of the plastic material. The ultimate proof for tolerance of moisture in a product has to be a product test under extreme conditions of usage in which critical dimensions and needed properties are verified. Plastics with very low water-moisture absorption rates tend to have better dimensional stability. 

Most plastics are used to produce products because they have desirable mechanical properties at an economical cost. For this reason their mechanical properties may be considered the most important of all the physical, chemical, electrical, and other considerations for most applications. Thus, everyone designing with such materials needs at least some elementary knowledge of their mechanical behavior and how they can be modified by the numerous structural factors that can be in plastics (Chapters 2 to 6). 

Plastics have the widest variety and range of mechanical properties of all materials (Figs. 1-8 and 7-1 and 7-2). They vary from basically soft to hard, rigid solids. Great many structural factors determine the nature of their mechanical behavior, such as whether a load occurs over the short term or the long... 

The main considerations of mechanical properties of metals and alloys at low temperatures taken into account for safety reasons are the transition from ductile-to-brittle behavior, certain unconventional modes of plastic deformation, and mechanical and elastic properties changes due to phase transformations in the crystalline structure. 

Ceramic-matrix fiber composites, 26 775 Ceramics mechanical properties, 5 613-638 cyclic fatigue, 5 633-634 elastic behavior, 5 613-615 fracture analysis, 5 634-635 fracture toughness, 5 619-623 hardness, 5 626-628 impact and erosion, 5 630 plasticity, 5 623-626 strength, 5 615-619 subcritical crack growth, 5 628—630 thermal stress and thermal shock, 5 632-633... 

FIGURE 14.9 Influence of temperature on the stress-strain behavior of a sample of poly(methyl methacrylate). (Modeled after Carswell, T.S. and Nason, H.K. Effects of Environmental Conditions on the Mechanical Properties of Organic Plastics, 1944. Copyright, ASTM, Philadelphia, PA. With permission.)... 

Despite the similarities in brittle and ductile behavior to ceramics and metals, respectively, the elastic and permanent deformation mechanisms in polymers are quite different, owing to the difference in structure and size scale of the entities undergoing movement. Whereas plastic deformation (or lack thereof) could be described in terms of dislocations and slip planes in metals and ceramics, the polymer chains that must be deformed are of a much larger size scale. Before discussing polymer mechanical properties in this context, however, we must first describe a phenomenon that is somewhat unique to polymers—one that imparts some astounding properties to these materials. That property is viscoelasticity, and it can be described in terms of fundamental processes that we have already introduced. 

In the early literature it is suggested that polycarbonates can be easily plasticized with common plasticizers. Plasticization of polycarbonate has been investigated by Kozlov et al. (12). These authors described the influence of plasticization on softening points and mechanical properties of bisphenol A polycarbonates. They conclude that the behavior of plasticized polycarbonate is similar to that encountered for most amorphous polymers. The influence of crystallization effects promoted by the plasticizer was not taken into account. 

The complex sorption behavior of the water in amine-epoxy thermosets is discussed and related to depression of the mechanical properties. The hypothesized sorption modes and the corresponding mechanisms of plasticization are discussed on the basis of experimental vapor and liquid sorption tests, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermomechanical analysis (TMA) and dynamic mechanical analysis. In particular, two different types of epoxy materials have been chosen low-performance systems of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) cured with linear amines, and high-performance formulations based on aromatic amine-cured tetraglycidyldiamino diphenylmethane (TGDDM) which are commonly used as matrices for carbon fiber composites. 

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