Abstract: | Recent work using small angle scattering techniques to study craze structure is reviewed. Three different radiations, electrons, X-rays, and neutrons were used to study four problems in the area. These were (1) the structure of crazes in thin films, (2) the structure of a single craze/crack in a bulk material, (3) the effect of organic environments, and (4), the effect of mechanical fatigue on craze structures. It is shown that the high intensity of a synchrotron source permits the examination of the process of growth and breakdown of a single craze in polystyrene and also the study in real time of the short- and long-term changes during fatigue of crazes. The H/D neutron contrast effects for neutrons were used to study environmental crazes with the environment still present. |