Abstract: | The relation between the size of the specular zone on the fracture surfaces of PMMA specimens and the loading rate is investigated at various temperatures. It is shown that the rate and time dependences of the size of the specular zone have certain common characteristics determined by the kinetic nature of damage accumulation in the material. It is proposed to employ the Robertson method 8] for studying the crack growth kinetics in polymers. This makes it unnecessary to observe the growth of cracks in the specimen during testing.All-Union Correspondence Structural Engineering Institute, Moscow. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 4, pp. 663–669, July–August, 1971. |