Relation between fracture and deformation in oriented polymers

The development of submicroscopic cracking under load has been studied (by a small-angle X-ray scattering technique) in such oriented polymers as Kapron (Nylon 6), polypropylene, etc. The increase in crack density (N_cr) is compared with the variation of the tensile strain (). The observed correlation between and N_cr indicates that the processes of fracture and deformation of oriented polymers are closely connected. The presence of a similar correlation in loading-relaxation-repeat loading experiments establishes fracture as the primary process.A. F. Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 1, pp. 43–47, January–February, 1970.