| Abstract: | It is shown by electron microscopy that the lamellar structure typical of bulk crystalline polymers is identical in its structural-morphological characteristics with the typical products of martensite transformations in metal systems. It is also established that the polymer crystallization process has the typical characteristics of transformations governed by the shear (martensite) mechanism. These conclusions are used as a basis for an examination of the principal factors controlling the formation of the real structure of bulk polymers. The thermodynamic conditions under which bulk polymers crystallize require that the lamellar-spherulitic structure be formed in accordance with a self-consistent shear mechanism. In accordance with the new model, the spherulites represent an organization of the martensite lamellae in which the structural stress fields are mutually compensated. The proposed model underlines the fact that polycrystalline polymers and metal systems in the martensitic state are structurally similar materials.E. O. Paton Electrowelding Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 3, pp. 387–394, May–June, 1976. |
