Effect of fibrous filler on the mechanical properties of polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate in the glassy state

The authors have investigated the effect of introducing fiberglas into polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate films on the transition temperatures and on the intervening glassy-state temperature intervals within which the polymers possess different physicomechanical properties. The variation in a number of the mechanical characteristics of these polymers has been studied as a function of filler concentration within all the subregions of the glassy state bounded by the transition temperatures obtained. Temperature inversion of the reinforcing action of the fibrous filler within the glassy state has been detected. Attention is drawn to the existence at a given temperature of a large number of filled polymer systems with the same reinforcing effect and the same strength at different contents of the same filler in the same polymer.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 517–523, 1967     

Effect of strain rate on the mechanical properties and transition temperatures of glass-reinforced polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate

The effect of strain rate on the mechanical properties and transition temperatures and the subregions of the glassy state that the latter define has been investigated for polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate films containing various amounts of fiberglas. An inversion of the reinforcing effect of the filler is observed as the strain rate is varied at fixed temperature. Varying the temperature can also lead to an inversion of the nature of the strain-rate dependence of the strength of the reinforced polymer within the glassy state. In the low-temperature region the strength increases with decrease, and in the high-temperature region with increase in strain rate. The transition temperatures of the reinforced polymers are more sensitive than those of the unreinforced polymers to changes of strain rate. The subregions of the glassy state are almost independent of the strain rate, except that as the latter increases they are shifted into the high-temperature region.Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 462–466, 1968     

Effect of biaxial orientation on the fracture kinetics of polymethyl methacrylate

Biaxially oriented PMM is shown to have important advantages as a structural material over unoriented PMM owing to a difference in fracture kinetics. Under identical conditions primary cracks appear later in the oriented PMM, their growth is impeded, and the rate of crack propagation in the avalanche stage of failure is much lower. This accounts for the greater resistance of biaxially oriented PMM to stress raisers and its higher fracture energy under biaxial loading.All-Union Scientific-Research Institute of Aviation Materials, Moscow. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 274–281, March–April, 1969.     

Effect of notches of different length on the properties of sheet polymethyl methacrylate

It is shown that increasing the length of a vee notch in polymethyl methacrylate sheet specimens does not significantly intensify the effectiveness of the notch as stress raiser. Over a broad interval of variation of its length the notch has a constant quantitative effect on the mechanical properties.Lenin Riga Komsomol Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 4, pp. 745–747, July–August, 1971.     

Effect of laser radiation on the mechanical strength of a block of polymethyl methacrylate

The effect of pre-existing microcavities, created by laser radiation, on the mechanical strength of polymethyl methacrylate is investigated. It is established that "seeding" with microcavities does not affect the breaking stress and relative elongation, but does shorten the lifetime.Institute of Problems of Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 2, pp. 247–250, March–April, 1971.     

Effect of the molecular weight of polystyrene on the viscosity of concentrated solutions

The viscosity of solutions of polystyrene of various molecular weights (from 1.04 · 10² to 3.8 · 10⁵) in a poor solvent (decalin) and a good solvent (ethylbenzene) has been measured at temperatures from 15 to 70°C over a broad range of shear stresses from 10² to 10⁶ dyne/cm². The nature of the solvent has a considerable influence on the critical molecular weight and the absolute value of the viscosities of the solutions over the entire range of molecular weights and on the form of the flow curves of decalin solutions of polystyrene as a function of temperature. The heat of activation of viscous flow increases with increase in molecular weight and shear stress on the interval 20–80°C. The results obtained are explained in terms of the effect of the molecular weight of the polymer, the nature of the solvent, stress and temperature on structure formation in the solution and on the orientation of the macromolecules and structures in the flow process.Ural Gor'kii State University, Sverdlovsk. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 5, pp. 920–926, September–October, 1970.     

Effect of the molecular weight of the polystyrene matrix on the physicomechanical properties of impact polystyrene

The effect of the molecular weight of the polystyrene on the properties of impact polystyrene obtained by mechanical mixing of polystyrene and rubber has been investigated. As the molecular weight of the polystyrene increases, the physicomechanical properties of the impact polystyrene improve and its rheological properties deteriorate. There is a definite correlation between the physicomechanical properties of the polystyrene and those of the impact polystyrene.Scientific-Research Institute of Synthetic Rubber, Kralupy-on-Vltava, Czechoslovakia. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 3, pp. 545–546, May–June, 1971.     

Features of rheological and electrophysical properties of compositions based on polyvinyl alcohol and carboxymethylcellulose

A study has been made of the rheological and electrophysical properties (conductivity and dielectric loss angle) of aqueous solutions of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), water-soluble carboxymethylcelluloses (Na-CMC), and compositions based on PVA and Na-CMC or methylcellulose, with PVA solution concentration 1% to 10% by weight and cellulose ether content in the polymer mixture up to 50% by weight. It was found that anisotropic structures can be formed in solutions based on PVA compositions under the influence of an orienting mechanical field; this is related to the formation of structure-sensitive associates in solution in the form of complexes.Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials, Riga, October 1995.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 742–753, November–December, 1995.     

Effect of hydrostatic pressure on the viscosity of failure of polymeric materials

Conclusions A setup and method were developed for studying the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the characteristics of the crack resistance of polymeric materials. The viscosity of failure of material K-4I based on butyl rubber was determined in a wide range of rates of crack propagation and hydrostatic pressures. It was found that an increase in the hydrostatic pressure increases the resistance to crack propagation in a polymeric material. The pressure-time analogy method, where the dependences of the viscosity of failure on the rate of crack growth are parallelly shifted to the value of the pressure-time shift and a generalized curve is formed, can be used for taking the effect of the pressure into consideration.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 6, pp. 973–977, November–December, 1986.     

Effect of fillers and solvents on the properties of polystyrene coatings

The mechanism of coating formation from solutions of atactic polystyrene in xylene and carbon tetrachloride has been investigated. It has been established that, as the filler content increases, in coatings formed from polystyrene solutions containing an evaporating solvent the growth of the internal stresses and the thermophysical characteristics is characterized by similarity of slope, as distinct from the case of coatings obtained from systems containing a polymerizing solvent. It is shown that the nature of the solvent has an important effect on the character of the interaction at the polymer—filler interface and on the structure and properties of the coatings.Kucherenko Central Scientific-Research Institute of Structural Design. Institute of Physical Chemistry, AS USSR, Moscow. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 1127–1129, November–December, 1968.     

Effect of time-dependent material properties on the crack behavior in the interface of two polymeric materials

Crack penetration through the bimaterial interface of two polymers is investigated numerically. Due to the practical importance of the problem, a crack in a three-layer pipe consisting of a main and two, inner and outer, protective layers is analyzed in this paper. The prime aim is to formulate the conditions under which the crack stays arrested at the interface between the protective layer and the main pipe or penetrates into the interface and causes failure of the main pipe and consequently of the entire pipe system. The crack tip stress field is described by using a generalized stress intensity factor for cases where the crack touches the interface and the stress singularity exponent differs from 1/2. In the case of short-term applications, the stress state on the interface is given simply by a combination of the elastic properties of materials of the main pipe and the protective layers. In long-term applications, the time-dependent properties of the materials can significantly influence the stress state of the interface and can lead to considerable changes in failure conditions. The results presented here may contribute to a more accurate estimation of the residual lifetime of multilayer pipes.     

Experimental determination of the influence of periodic shear deformation and filling on the effective viscosity of solutions of synthetic rubber

The influence of periodic shear deformation on the effective viscosity of filled solutions of synthetic rubber has been studied. The study was carried out on an amplitude-frequency viscosimeter developed by the authors. It has been established that during periodic deformation a linear region exists in which the effective viscosity is independent of the vibration rate, and a nonlinear region where the effective viscosity of the solutions decreases with increase in amplitude of the speed of relative deformation.Presented at the IV Symposium on Rheology of Polymers at the A. V. Topchiev Institute for Petrochemical Synthesis, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, May 27–30, 1969.Institute for Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 3, 514–520, May–June, 1970.