Tensile stress, impact

Polymeric materials, in application, may be exposed to a wide range of environmental stresses, including solvent attack, oxidation, photochemical damage, mechanical abrasion, flexion, compression and tensile stress, impact, and thermal degradation. These stresses all have the potential to produce irreversible damage to the material s structural characteristics. It has been proposed that such damage starts at the microscopic level with the formation of microvoids, which then expand to generate microcracks, and ultimately lead to macroscopic failure of the material. 

Four modes of characterization are of interest chemical analyses, ie, quaUtative and quantitative analyses of all components mechanical characterization, ie, tensile and impact testing morphology of the mbber phase and rheology at a range of shear rates. Other properties measured are stress crack resistance, heat distortion temperatures, flammabiUty, creep, etc, depending on the particular appHcation (239). 

More general dynamic loading conditions can lead to more complex domains of tensile stress and spall. For example, in a Taylor impact experiment (Kipp and Davison, 1981), where a short cylinder of material is caused to undergo symmetric normal impact on the flat surface of a large block of material, a roughly spherical region within the cylinder is carried into dynamic tension and can undergo spall. 

Impact of a thin plate on a sample of interest which is, in turn, backed by a lower impedance window material leads to an interaction of waves which will carry an interior planar region into tension. Spall will ensue if tension exceeds the transient strength of the test sample. A velocity or stress history monitored at the interface indicated in Fig. 8.4 may look as indicated in Fig. 8.5. The velocity (stress) pull-back or undershoot carries information concerning the ability of the test material to support transient tensile stress and, with appropriate interpretation, can provide a reasonable measure of the spall strength of the material. 

The determination of tensile stress-strain properties is conducted in accordance with ISO 527 [4] and the values that can be obtained are illustrated in Figure 7.1. For weathering tests where cabinet space is restricted some workers have used a tensile impact dumbbell from ISO 8256 [5] with a square central section which allows test pieces to be exposed edge on. The considerable disadvantage is that modulus cannot be measured as there is no parallel gauge length. 

Select low-temperature steels for fracture-critical structural members designed for tensile stress levels greater than a ksl (40 MPa) and specify a minimum Charpy V notch Impact energy absorption of 20 ft-lb (27 J) for base metal, heat-affected zones (HAZs), and welds when the structures are exposed to low-ambient temperatures. Fracture-critical members are those tension members whose failure would have a significant economic impact. 

First, the role of rubber modification in high rate impact is to suppress spallation by inducing the material to yield in the presence of dynamic tensile stresses arising from impact. Second, this yield-spall transition occurs at different strain rates for different rubber contents and may be predictable using quasistatic, low temperature tests of this type. These tests can also provide information concerning the basic nature of the yield process in these materials through the activation parameters which are obtained. Third, the Bauwens-Crowet equation seems to be a good model for the rate and temperature sensitive behavior of the American Cyanamid materials and is therefore a likely candidate for a yield criterion to use in the analytical code work on these materials which we hope to perform as a continuation of this work. 

Weld lines (also known as knit lines) are a potential source of weakness in molded and extruded plastic products. These occur when separate polymer melt flows meet and weld more or less into each other. Knit lines arise from flows around barriers, as in double or multigating and use of inserts in injection molding. The primary source of weld lines in extrusion is flow around spiders (multiarmed devices that hold the extrusion die). The melt temperature and melt elasticity (which is mentioned in the next section of this chapter) have major influences on the mechanical properties of weld lines. The tensile and impact strength of plastics that fail without appreciable yielding may be reduced considerably by in doublegated moldings, compared to that of samples without weld lines. Polystryrene and SAN copolymers are typical of such materials. The effects of weld lines is relatively minor with ductile amorphous plastics like ABS and polycarbonate and with semicrystalline polymers such as polyoxymethylene. Tliis is because these materials can reduce stress concentrations by yielding [22]. 

The strength of most materials is greater in compression than in tension. It is therefore unfortunate that technical difficulties prevent the direct application of tensile stresses. The compressive stresses commonly used in comminution equipment do not cause failure directly but generate by distortion sufficient tensile or shear stress to form a crack tip in a region away from the point of primary stress application. This is an inefficient but unavoidable mechanism. Impact and attrition are the other basic modes of stress application. The distinction between impact and compression is referred to later. Attrition, which is commonly employed, is difficult to classify but is probably primarily a shear mechanism. 

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