Changes in mechanical behavior during fatigue of semicrystalline thermoplastics

The tensile fatigue behavior of two engineering thermoplastics (polyacetal and nylon_6,6) were studied by measuring changes in the dynamic viscoelastic response together with changes in potential energy density, strain energy density, and irreversible work. The results show that both stress softening and hardening can occur in controlled load cyclic conditions. At high stress levels and/or frequencies, both the polyacetal and nylon_6,6 show evidence of thermal softening as characterized by changes in their dynamic viscoelastic properties and decrease in storage modulus with corresponding increases in loss modulus and loss tangent. This effect is supported by observed decreases in the overall crystallinity as measured in DSC experiments. At lower stress levels (the mechanically dominated region), all results indicate that, although fatigue crack propagation (FCP) is one of the mechanisms governing the fatigue life, its contribution is minor and crack initiation time constitutes the majority of the fatigue life. Also, during the initiation stage, both materials become less viscoelastic and more elastic. This phenomenon is evidenced by overall reductions in the loss modulus, loss tangent, and irreversible work densities while the storage modulus is maintained. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.