The brittle‐ductile transition temperature of polycarbonate as a function of test speed

The fracture behavior of polycarbonate was studied as a function of temperature (?80°C to +80°C) and test speed (10^?5 to 10 m/s) using an instrumented, singleedged, notched tensile test (SENT). SENT tests give information on the fracture stress, fracture displacements, and fracture energies of polycarbonate, and from these data the average crack speeds were calculated and the brittle‐ductile transitions were determined. The fracture stress and the fracture energies of ductile fracturing samples increased with increasing test speed. The fracture surfaces were studied by scanning electron analysis, and sometimes a mixed mode fracture, part ductile and part brittle, could be seen. At high test speeds, a sharp brittle‐ductile transition was observed, while at low test speeds the transition was more gradual, via a mixed mode region. This mixed mode region decreased in size with increasing test speed and was absent at the higher test speeds. The average crack speeds in the ductile region were directly related to the test speeds. The brittle‐ductile transition temperature increased with the logarithmic of the test speed.     

A model for service life of polyethylene pipe exhibiting ductile–brittle transition in failure mode

This article proposes a model for predicting failure time of stressed polyethylene pipe materials that exhibit a failure mode transition from brittle to ductile as stress is increased. The model is based on data obtained using the constant tensile load (CTL) test and takes into account stress-versus-failure-time behavior in both brittle and ductile regimes, as well as in the transition regime. The model permits quantification of the ductile–brittle transition behavior not only from the standpoint of the location of the transition but also its breadth. It is illustrated that knowledge of these two separate parameters opens new avenues for understanding the molecular basis of the transition process. This research was conducted under the sponsorship of the Gas Research Institute.     

Characterization of the fracture behavior of polyethylene using measured cohesive curves. I: Effects of constraint and rate

The damage and failure mechanisms in polyethylene are investigated using a circumferentially notched tensile specimen subject to constant rate displacement conditions. The fracture process can be quantified, independent of the bulk deformation, using a local traction–separation relation. The study found that the mechanisms of deformation under quasi‐static test speeds depend on the degree of crack tip constraint in addition to rate. This dependency can lead to contrasting deformation‐failure behavior between different grades of polyethylene and hence the overall energy dissipation process. Based on this approach, both gross and subtle differences in the fracture behavior between the grades were readily detected and differentiated. In general, the damage mechanisms changed from a brittle mode under conditions of high constraint to a ductile mode as the level of constraint is reduced. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 46:763–777, 2006. © 2006 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Multiaxial impact measurements of polypropylenes

A new puncture tester of the falling weight type for conducting impact tests has been developed. With this tester, impact energy can be measured by means of an accelerometer fixed in the falling weight, and strength by a compression type load cell placed under a pot clamping a sample. Puncture behaviors are traced on an oscilloscope. Results of puncture measurements of isotactic propylene homopolymers and copolymers with ethylene showd that impact behaviour depended noticeably upon temperature. Ethylene concentration, isotacticity and molecular weight of polypropylene resins were not more effective in sustaining impact resistance in the range of temperatures below the brittle point than in bringing down the brittle point itself. It was confirmed by means of tensile impact tests that energy to failure depended not upon yield strength but upon deformation in ductile rupture, whereas in the brittle rupture case energy to failure depended primarily on the strength of the material. Dynamic mechanical measurement was also carried out to secure the relationship between crystallinity and impact resistance.     

Some problems associated with the puncture testing of plastics

Glassy polycarbonate specimens with different degrees of aging were tested in puncture for the purpose of determining the ductile/brittle transition temperature in biaxial tension. The results show that increasing amounts of aging increase the transition temperature from ?95 to ?70°C. All transitions appear too low In temperature. This was confirmed by using strip-biaxial specimens that become brittle at a significantly higher temperature. In addition to this problem, the load deflection curve also can lead to an overestimation of the load and energy to initiate cracking. A finite element model of the puncture test suggests that the compressive stress under the dart may have shifted the onset of brittleness to much lower temperatures.     

Application of the essential work of fracture concept to high temperature deformation in polyoxymethylene

Essential Work of Fracture (EWF) tests have been carried out on double edge notched samples machined from injection molded sheets of commercial grades of polyoxymethylene homopolymer with different molecular weight averages. Most of the measurements were made at 100⁰C and over a range of test speeds in which polyoxymethylene is anticipated to undergo a macroscopic ductile‐brittle transition with decreasing strain rate. The results reflect both the existence and the molecular weight dependence of this transition, and are argued to be valid in terms of the European Structural Integrity Society's EWF draft test protocol under certain test conditions. However, it is shown that the applicability of the test method used here becomes highly questionable for test speeds in the immediate vicinity of the transition, owing to the influence of the initial ligament length on the crack tip deformation mechanisms.     

往复荷载下含孔洞缺陷衬砌混凝土的力学性能试验研究

通过添加不同含量的发泡聚苯乙烯(EPS)颗粒来预制目标孔隙率以模拟混凝土的不同孔洞缺陷,制备了不同孔隙率的C25和C30两种强度等级的混凝土试件,开展单调及往复荷载下含孔洞缺陷混凝土力学性能的试验研究,分析了混凝土试件破坏形态、强度、应变、弹性模量等随孔隙率的变化规律,探讨不同孔洞缺陷对混凝土力学性能的影响。试验结果表明:单调及往复荷载下,无预制孔洞缺陷的混凝土试件均表现为脆性破坏特征。但随着孔隙率的增加,混凝土试件的强度明显降低,应力-应变曲线逐渐趋于鱼肚状分布,试件由脆性向延性破坏转变,逐渐呈现多裂缝扩展特征,特别是对于往复加载情况。两种加载方式和两种强度等级条件下,试件主要力学参数随着预制孔隙率的增加均表现出一致的变化规律。峰值应力和弹性模量随孔隙率的上升呈指数下降,而峰值应变和应变极值呈线性增大。往复荷载下试件力学性能受孔隙率的影响程度均大于单调加载情况,而且,这种影响随混凝土强度的提高而减小。在往复加载过程中,孔隙率越大,峰值应力前试件的刚度比值越大,而峰后的刚度退化也愈严重。对于相同的孔隙率,混凝土强度等级越高,峰值应力前的刚度增长率及峰后的刚度退化程度越小。     

A fatigue crack initiation map for polycarbonate

The mechanisms of fatigue crack initiation for various stress levels and thicknesses have been determined for single-edge notched specimens of polycarbonate and used to assemble a map. Three basic fatigue crack initiation mechanisms were identified and named as cooperative ductile (the damage zone formed ahead of crack consisting of yielded material), solo-crack brittle (very little damage zone development), and cooperative brittle (identified as a cloud of microcracks or crazes that developed at the notch tip). With a given applied stress and within the same failure mechanism, the values of the number of cycles to crack initiation decrease with increase in thickness. The transition from cooperative ductile to solo-crack brittle initiation mechanisms is sudden with increasing thickness. Transition from cooperative ductile to cooperative brittle with decreasing stress was less well defined. Regions where combinations of mechanisms were observed are also identified in the map. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An impact test for road binders

A study has been made of the energy absorbed in rupturing a road binder film in a pendulum impact machine. At high temperatures the energy is absorbed by viscous traction, at low temperatures by elastic strain energy, and in the intermediate visco-elastic region the energy rises to a marked maximum providing optimum conditions for stone retention by the binder. A standard test at ? 10° gives an energy value, under conditions of brittle fracture, which is demonstrated to be suitable for comparing tars of known equiviscous temperatures and which reflects the width of the visco-elastic peak, giving a measure of resistance to brittle failure of the binder.     

Experimental investigation on environmental degradation of automotive mixed-adhesive joints

In this paper, environmental strength degradation of 180 different adhesive single lap joints (SLJ), including mono-adhesive Araldite 2015, mono-adhesive Araldite AV138, and a mixed-adhesive of Araldite 2015 and Araldite AV138 subjected to moist conditions are experimentally studied. Four different moist conditions, i.e. dry, 75.3, 84.2 RH% and immersion in tap water, have been taken into consideration and the specimens are tested after exposing to these environments at room temperature for 0, 35, 80 and 270 days. The specimens have been tested in two different strain rate, i.e. 1 mm/min and 100 mm/min. The results reveal that although, in a dry environment, mixed-adhesive joints have higher failure loads in comparison to mono-adhesive SLJs, in a moist environment, they have the highest reduction in static failure load with regard to the mono-adhesive ones. Moreover, despite the finally brittle trend in failure load, mixed-adhesives manifest a behavior very similar to ductile mono-adhesives regarding elongation. Analytical predictions of failure load are also consistent with the experimental observations in dry condition.     

Fracture and impact properties of polycarbonates and MBS elastomer-modified polycarbonates

Mechanical properties of polycarbonates (PCs) and elastomer-modified polycarbonates with various molecular weights (MW) are investigated. Higher MW PCs show slightly lower density, yield stress, and modulus. The ductile–brittle transition temperature (DBTT) of the notched impact strength decreases with the increase of PC MW and with the increase of elastomer content. The elastomer-modified PC has higher impact strength than does the unmodified counterpart if the failure is in the brittle mode, but has lower impact strength if the failure is in the ductile mode. The critical strain energy release rate (G_c) measured at ?30°C decreases with the decrease of PC MW. The extrapolated zero fracture energy was found at M_n = 6800 or MFR = 135. The G_c of the elastomer-modified PC (MFR = 15, 5% elastomer) is about twice that of thee unmodified one. The presence of elastomer in the PC matrix promotes the plane–strain localized shear yielding to greater extents and thus increases the impact strength and G_c in a typically brittle fracture. Two separate modes, localized and mass shear yielding, work simultaneously in the elastomer-toughening mechanism. The plane–strain localized shear yielding dominates the toughening mechanism at lower temperatures and brittle failure, while the plane–stress mass shear yielding dominates at higher temperatures and ductile failure. For the elastomer-modified PC (10% elastomer), the estimated extension ratio of the yielding zone of the fractured surface is 2 for the ductile failure and 5 for the brittle crack. A criterion for shifting from brittle to ductile failure based on precrack critical plastic-zone volume is proposed.     

Effect of an acrylic modifier on the brittle to ductile transition in poly(vinyl chloride)

Instrumented notched Izod measurements were made on test specimens cut from milled compression molded plaques of modified and unmodified poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). The experimental variables were notch radius (from 0.025 to 6.35 mm in 8 steps) and two temperatures (23 and 12.5°C). Load-time and energy-time curves were determined under each set of experimental conditions, and each condition was replicated five times. The brittle to ductile transition is readily observed in this experimental range. The transition always occurs at shorter notch radii at each temperature for the modified PVC. In the transition region, the total energy drops from the 1,000 to 2,000 J/m range to less than 150 J/m. In this region, maximum loads remain the same while the times to break becomes much shorter for the brittle materials. These results suggest that the underlying molecular mechanism for brittle failure is the inability of the system to respond to the applied deformation. The oscillations observed in the printed output of the instrumented impact test were identified as having instrument rather than test specimen origins.     

Coexistence of ductile,semiductile, and brittle fractures of elastomer-modified polycarbonates

Phenomenologically, coexistence of ductile, semiductile, and brittle fractures in an apparently identical impact testing condition for the elastomer-modified polycarbonates containing a sharper notch and at high test temperatures has been found. At the ductile–brittle transition temperature, approximately 10% of specimens fractured in the semiductile mode with impact strength about the average of the ductile and brittle modes. The fracture surface of this semiductile mode shows ductile tearing flow in the plane-stress regions near the edges and brittle crack in the plane-strain central region. This unusual semiductile fracture occurs only on the thicker specimens with a sharper notch where clear plane-stress and plane-strain are present. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

热负荷分配比例对抽凝-背压供热机组能耗影响

抽凝-背压供热模式是实现能量梯级利用、降低火力发电煤耗的有效途径,研究不同室外温度下供热凝汽器与尖峰加热器热负荷分配比例对机组能耗的影响,确定最佳热负荷分配比例,是抽凝-背压供热机组节能降耗的核心问题之一。本文利用热网变工况模型及Ebsilon软件仿真,以某310MW抽凝-背压供热机组为研究对象,分析了供热期不同温度下供热凝汽器与尖峰加热器热负荷分配比例不同时机组的发电功率及煤耗。结果表明：对于抽凝-背压热电联产机组,并非供热凝汽器热负荷比例越高而发电功率越高,供热期不同阶段,机组发电功率随供热凝汽器热负荷变化呈现不同规律;相同室外温度下,供热凝汽器与尖峰加热器热负荷分配比例对机组能耗影响很大,凝汽器热负荷比例不同时,其极差最小值和最大值分别为2.02g/（kW·h）和5.50g/（kW·h）。     

Fracture behaviour of magnesia refractory materials in tension with the Brazilian test

In this work, the tensile failure of magnesia, rebound magnesia-chrome and chrome-containing magnesia-spinel refractories under the Brazilian test were investigated. The digital image correlation and acoustic emission were applied simultaneously for ensuring the validity of Brazilian test and studying the fracture process. The brittle refractories fail abruptly while reaching their load peaks because of the unstable crack propagation. However, the chrome-containing magnesia-spinel refractory shows a reduced brittleness due to the pre-existing microcracks, which promotes quasi-stable crack propagation evidenced by the nonlinearity in the pre-peak region and the softening in the post-peak region. Besides, the thickness-to-diameter ratio has a great influence on the fracture behaviour, which also shows brittleness dependence. The fracture behaviour of rebound magnesia-chrome refractory varies from brittle to less brittle while the thickness increasing from 10 mm to 50 mm. The quasi-stable crack propagation favors the central crack initiation and ensures the tensile failure under the Brazilian test.     

Mechanical fracture behavior of polyacetal and thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer toughened polyacetal

Polyacetal (POM) toughening with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomer was investigated in terms of Theological, mechanical, and morphological properties. Polyacetal can be effectively toughened by the blending with TPU elastomer and the improvement on toughness is found most significant with TPU content from 20 to 30 percent. POM does fracture in ductile mode under extremely low deformation rate and the ductile-brittle transition rate is at 0.5 mm/min. The transition rate is increased with the increase of elastomer content. The precrack hysteresis energy is important in dictating the failure mode. The experimental results show the hysteresis energy (under constant load) increases with the increase of elastomer content and the decrease of deformation rate. Greater hysteresis energy results in larger precrack plastic zone size and thus tends to shift the fracture mode from brittle to ductile as the critical size of the plastic zone is reached. The adoption of the slow rate fracture method has the advantages of ranking toughness of very brittle polymeric materials vs. the conventional Izod or Charpy impact method by varying temperatures. FTIR shows significant interaction between POM and TPU which is probably responsible for the TPU elastomer being such an efficient toughening agent for POM. Delamination in the buffer zone between the plane-strain and the plane-stress is discovered and the possible mechanism is discussed.     

高性能橡胶粉混凝土动态压缩性能研究

在微机控制电液伺服压力试验机上对高性能橡胶粉混凝土(HPRC)试件进行单轴压缩试验,研究了橡胶粉体积掺量和应变率对高性能橡胶粉混凝土性能的影响.研究结果表明,高性能橡胶粉混凝土峰值应力和割线模量表现出一定的应变率强化效应,而橡胶粉的掺入会降低峰值应力和割线模量提升的幅度;峰值应变未表现出应变率敏感性,橡胶粉的掺入会增强混凝土的变形能力;分析了应变能与试件破坏形态的关系,应变率增大,试件破坏前贮存的应变能增大,试件破坏更严重,呈脆性破坏,掺入橡胶粉后,混凝土的韧性改善较大,试件破坏时呈现裂而不散的特性.     

不同应变率下橡胶混凝土抗压性能及能量特性研究

对四种橡胶体积掺量(0%、5%、10%、20%)的级配良好橡胶混凝土开展单轴抗压试验,对力学性能和破坏形态方面进行分析,得到了橡胶混凝土综合性能最优时的橡胶掺量,进而对最优掺量组进行不同应变率下的单轴压缩试验,并分析了不同应变率下橡胶混凝土的能量特性。试验结果表明,橡胶混凝土表现为裂而不散的类延性破坏,而非普通混凝土的脆性破坏。随着橡胶掺量的增加,抗压强度大幅降低,但变形能力得到增强,在掺量为10%时,橡胶混凝土的抗压强度达标,变形能力最好。橡胶混凝土受压时能量演化和转化过程是输入能先大量转化为弹性能并储存;接着耗散能转化率开始增加,使试件表面产生大量微裂纹;最后弹性能快速释放,耗散能转化率占比明显提高,从而导致试件整体破坏。另外随着应变率增大,橡胶混凝土的抗压强度和初始弹性模量明显提高,而峰值应变降低,同时输入总能量、弹性能与耗散能均呈现上升趋势,其中弹性能增加更明显。     

A simulation of the effects of high strain energy storage in large plastic structures

Brittle failures of large plastic structures observed in the field may have occurred at much higher loads than implied from the fracture surfaces, indeed, as if very ductile failures had occurred. It has been demonstrated that these brittle failures may be a direct result of high energy storage upon impact in large compliant systems. A rubber-toughened blend of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and polycarbonate (PC) was highlighted in this study. Soft steel springs were used in series with compact tension samples to simulate the high energy-storing capability of large compliant structures, Ductile and stable fractures of compact tension samples of the blend were observed at all of the temperatures tested down through ?30°C. With the insertion of springs to simulate large compliant structures, however, unstable failures resulted. At 25°C, initial ductile crack growth was followed by ductile but unstable failure. At ?30°C, initial ductile crack growth was followed by brittle unstable failure. These instabilities resulted from the excessive amount of stored energy released by the system during initial crack growth. A higher rubber variant of the PBT/PC blend as well as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate exhibited similar behavior.     

Kinetics of ageing and re-embrittlement of mechanically rejuvenated polystyrene

Pre-deforming polystyrene by rolling results in elimination of strain softening and induces ductile deformation behaviour in a subsequent tensile test. However, both yield stress and strain softening recover in time as a result of ageing, resulting in renewed brittle failure behaviour. The kinetics of this process is addressed in this paper. Although the process of recovery of yield stress and strain softening shows no molecular weight dependence, the time-scale of renewed brittle fracture after rejuvenation does. Any localisation of strain can only be stabilised if the molecular network can transfer sufficient load. For relatively low molecular-weight polystyrene, the load bearing capacity is already exceeded at short ageing times, whereas for higher molecular-weight grades this takes longer. Since the creep compliance and shift-rate of mechanically rejuvenated polystyrene shows a pronounced increase as compared to thermally rejuvenated polystyrene, the segmental mobility in the mechanically rejuvenated samples has increased, despite a lower free volume. This indicates that a new explanation for ageing should be postulated, which is discussed.