Reliability, plastics mechanical behavior

Performance of plastics , W. Brostow Hanser Gardner Pubis (1999) ISBN 1569902771. Comprehensively covers the behavior of the most important polymer materials. Subject areas range from Computer Simulations of Mechanical Behavior to Reliability and Durability of aircraft structures made of fiber-reinforced hydrocarbons. 

Elevated temperature applications require materials that can maintain good mechanical properties such as strength and hardness. Ceramics have good mechanical properties at high temperature and, thus, appear to be good candidates for elevated temperature applications. However, due to their brittle nature, monolithic ceramics are unsuitable for many applications where reliability is a critical issue. In the last few years, a new class of ceramic materials has been developed and studied. It is understood that two brittle materials can show non-brittle behavior if they are properly mixed. Fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) exhibit pseudo-plastic behavior at room temperature, as well as in an elevated temperature environment. Since the fiber and the matrix are made of ceramic material, creep behavior and hazardous emissions are reduced considerably. 

Apart from the methods already mentioned above for the rapid and reliable layout of plastics-specific function elements, an empirical approach is also used. This involves conducting tests to establish the mechanical part behavior of the function elements under observation and summing up this behavior in empirical calculation formulae. Examples of function elements of this type include snap-in joints, film hinges and also adhesive joints [6, 7]. 

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