Premium
Environmental Stress Cracking of Polymers Monitored by Fatigue Crack Growth Experiments
Author(s) -
Altstaedt Volker,
Keiter Sven,
Renner Michael,
Schlarb Alois
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.200451004
Subject(s) - environmental stress cracking , materials science , toughening , durability , cracking , composite material , scanning electron microscope , paris' law , polymer , stress (linguistics) , degradation (telecommunications) , fracture (geology) , stress concentration , natural rubber , crack closure , fracture mechanics , stress corrosion cracking , corrosion , toughness , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , telecommunications
This article describes fatigue crack growth experiments to investigate the degradation of the durability of polymers due to fluid environments. The degrading effect of media causing stress cracking can be observed on the fracture surfaces of tested samples by scanning electron microscopy. Strategies to improve environmental stress cracking like changes in molecular weight, orientation, toughening with rubber particles of different sizes are discussed. Fatigue crack growth experiments can be employed as a very fast and effective screening method.