| Abstract: | A study of the influence of filler volume fraction on the strain-rate dependence of CaCO3-reinforced polyethylene was carried out. Tensile tests were done at different strain rates ranging from 0.008 to 2.0 min−1, whereas the CaCO3 amount was varied from 0.10 to 0.40. In the range of strain rates in this study, it was found that increasing strain rate generally increased yield stress and Young's modulus, but decreased yield strain for both unfilled and filled polyethylene. The increase in the filler volume fraction resulted in the decrease in the degree of strain-rate dependence of yield stress and strain. The decrease in strain-rate dependence of the composite changed into strain-rate independence when the filler content was beyond 0.20, and more pronounced at a high strain rate than a low strain rate. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 70: 1717–1724, 1998 |
