Essential Work of Fracture Parameters of Injection-Molded Polypropylene/Polyolefin Elastomer Blends

The influence of polyolefin elastomer (POE) content on the fracture behavior of injection-molded polypropylene (PP)/POE blends was evaluated by means of the essential work of fracture (EWF) method. The results indicated that the EWF approach worked well for the PP/POE blends when POE content was 0～7.5 wt% of the blends. The specific essential work of fracture (w _e) increased with increasing POE content, and the dominant factor that affected w _e was the necking and subsequent fracture process. The specific nonessential work of fracture (βw _p) slightly decreased with increasing POE content, while the specific plastic work (w _p) showed an increasing trend with the decrease of the shape factor (β) of the specimen. Finally, it was shown that w _e could be predicted reasonably well via the COD values.