Evaluation of fracture toughness of ABS polymers via the essential work of fracture (EWF) method

The essential work of fracture (EWF) method was employed to determine the fracture toughness of SAN/PB-g-SAN blends with the compositions of 65/35–0/100. It was found that the plane stress EWF approach is applicable for different SAN/PB-g-SAN blends. During EWF tests, three different types of load–displacement curves were recorded, depending on the blend composition. For the samples containing rubbery phase of 35–65 wt% crack growth occurred immediately after full ligament yielding. Further increase in rubber content and for the samples with 75 and 85 wt% of rubbery phase, the onset of crack growth was preceded by the formation of necking zone in the form of a sharp load drop after full ligament yielding. For the sample with the composition of 0/100, strain hardening behavior was observed without any sign of neck formation. The specific essential work of fracture (EWF) w _e increased at first with the increase of PB-g-SAN wt% and then decreased with further increasing amount of rubbery phase. The maximum value of w _e was observed for the blend with 75 wt% of PB-g-SAN. The specific non-essential work of fracture βW _p increased with increasing of rubbery phase concentration. The analyzing of yielding and necking/tearing components of essential and non-essential parameters showed that for the samples containing 55 wt% and higher of rubbery phase, \( w_{\text{e,nt}} \succ w_{\text{e,y}} \)and\( \beta_{\text{nt}} w_{\text{p,nt}} \succ \beta_{\text{y}} w_{\text{p,y}} \), indicating that a majority of fracture energy was dissipated in the necking and tearing stages of fracture process. Finally, it is shown that w _e values can be predicted via COD values.