Mechanical anisotropy of highly oriented polymers

Recent progress on the understanding of the mechanical anisotropy of orientedpolymers is reviewed. The key issues that are discussed include theexperimental validation of theoretical predictions for the elastic constantsof fibres, quantitative interpretations of the mechanical anisotropy of chain-extended polyethylenes and liquid crystalline polymers using aggregate models,the analysis of anisotropic polymers and fibre/resin composites and compositemodels for specially oriented polyethylene sheets and high moduluspolyethylene fibres.