| Abstract: | A craze may fracture either by the breaking of covalent bonds or by a process of “viscous rupture” involving the movement of bulk material in the craze. In the latter case it is necessary that the majority of the chain ends of the polymer molecules passing through the craze-matrix interface terminate within the craze. We have therefore calculated the probability of a polystrene macromolecule spanning a thin craze and shown that for viscous rupture a craze in a normal commercial polystyrene must be something more than 40 nm thick. As the measured craze thicknesses have generally exceeded 100 nm, a viscous fracture process is clearly possible, though, of course, chain rupture is not excluded by the argument. More difficulties arise when fracture occurs within a specified region of the craze and the possibility of a bond fracture under these circumstances is briefly discussed. |
