Durability of polymers as a function of loading regime during repeated loading with a small number of cycles

Specimens of oriented polycaproamide and unoriented polymethyl methacrylate subjected to uniaxial extension were used to study durability as a function of the number of loading cycles and the intervals between them in different segments of the creep curve. It was shown that the deformation hardening during the initial segment of the creep curve governs the ability of the specimen to withstand subsequent loading cycles. With a relatively low loading rate, deloading-loading cycles during the initial segment of the creep curve lead primarily to an increase in local stresses. During the second stage, repeated loading causes principally an increase in local heating. The interval between loading cycles has only a weak influence on durability.A. F. Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 2, pp. 252–256, March–April, 1972.