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Interrelation of mechanical and optical properties of plasticized epoxy polymers
Author(s) -
Theocaris P. S.,
Prassianakis J.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1978.070220621
Subject(s) - epoxy , materials science , composite material , polymer , plasticizer , ultimate tensile strength , poisson's ratio , stress (linguistics) , modulus , anisotropy , fracture (geology) , strain gauge , optics , poisson distribution , mathematics , linguistics , statistics , philosophy , physics
A series of cold‐setting epoxy polymers, plasticized with different amounts of plasticizer, ranging between 0 and 90% by weight of the amount of the epoxy prepolymer, were studied for their mechanical, optical, and fracture behavior properties. Quantities defining the mechanical properties were considered: the elastic modulus E , Poisson's ratio v , and fracture tensile stress σ f . These were accurately measured with electric strain gauges in specimens tested in a 5‐ton Instron tester. The optical behavior was characterized by the stress optical coefficients of the materials in both principal directions, α and β, as well as by the coefficient of optical anisotropy, ζ. The values of these quantities were measured by a Fizeau interferometric method. Finally, the optical method of caustics was applied to cracked epoxy polymer specimens to provide a new experimental technique for determining the stress optical properties of these polymers in terms of their mechanical properties. This method was used to check the previous results found by established experimental methods.