1987 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Deformation and Fracture of High Polymers, Definition and Scope of Treatment
Author : Professor Dr. rer. nat. Hans-Henning Kausch-Blecken von Schmeling
Published in: Polymer Fracture
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Included in: Professional Book Archive
Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.
Select sections of text to find matching patents with Artificial Intelligence. powered by
Select sections of text to find additional relevant content using AI-assisted search. powered by
The importance of a thorough understanding of the deformation behavior and the strength of polymeric engineering materials need not be emphasized. It is obvious to anyone who wants to use polymers as load bearing, weather-resisting, or deformable components or who wants to grind or degrade them. “Strength” and “fracture” of a sample are the positive and negative aspects of one and the same phenomenon, namely that of stress-biased material disintegration. The final step of such disintegration manifests itself as macroscopic failure of the component under use, be it a water pipe, a glass fiber reinforced oil tank, or a plastic grocery bag. The preceding intermediate steps — nonlinear deformation, environmental attack, and crack initiation and growth — are often less obvious, although they cause and/or constitute the damage developed within a loaded sample.