Toughness and brittleness of plastics: A summary of an ACS/SPE symposium

A recent and joint ACS/SPE symposium featured 40 papers on the fundamental mechanism of brittle fracture, low-speed crazing and fracture, high-speed impact mechanisms, fatigue failure, multi-phase polymer systems, and reinforcing fibers. A survey of these papers indicates the present state of our knowledge in this field, and the rapid progress it is making toward the development of high-performance plastic materials.