| Abstract: | The birefringences of injection molded plates and the birefringence during steady, isothermal shear flow were compared for some amorphous polymers. The materials studied were a polystyrene, a “toughened” polystyrene and an acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer. The birefringence of the plates, notably the maximum value for the average over the thickness was found to be related to the shear stress at the cavity wall that had occurred during the mold filling process. This relationship was independent of temperature. To a good approximation, it was also the same as the relationship between the flow birefringence and the shear stress at the wall in isothermal channel flow. It thus appears that the anisotropy of injection molded objects is dominated by the shear stresses during the mold filling process regardless of the temperature and of the macroscopic rate of deformation. |
