Mechanical properties of oriented polyvinylchloride composites filled with ultrafine particles

The tensile stress-strain behaviour of undrawn and drawn polyvinylchloride (PVC) composites filled with ultrafine SiO₂ and micron sized glass particles were discussed as functions of filler content and size. For the undrawn PVC composites filled with ultrafine SiO₂ particles, Young's moduli, yield and breaking stresses increased with filler content and decreasing filler size. Whereas for the composites filled with micron sized glass particles, their Young's moduli slightly increased with filler content but both the yield and breaking stresses decreased. Oriented PVC composites were made by uniaxially drawing to × 2.5 at 100 °C. Anisotropic mechanical properties of oriented specimens were discussed in terms of compliance tensor and yield stress measured in the direction of 0°, 45° and 90° to the original stretching direction at room temperature. In the case of 70A SiO₂, all the compliance decreased with filler content, whereas those of 65μ glass, this relation was reversed. The yield stress of the oriented PVC composites showed filler size dependence similar to Young's moduli. The anisotropic yield stress of oriented PVC composites were reasonably analysed by Hill's yield criterion.