Tensile Strength of Plastics above the Glass Temperature

Abstract

A theory is presented for the tensile strength of rubbery plastics under dynamic test conditions. It is found that a nearly universal curve may be plotted relating the tensile strength of rubbers to the time of application of the load in a simple creep test or to the shear rate in a conventional type tensile test. The dependence on chain length, degree of cross linking, and temperature is also predicted. Experimental results for the tensile strength of poly butyl methacrylate in the range 30–95°C are presented. These are shown to agree with the theory within the experimental error. The experimental testing scale extends over a range of eight decades when use is made of a temperature—time superposition principle predicted by the theory. By comparing the tensile creep and tensile strength curves for poly butyl methacrylate, it is possible to find the size of a segment as defined in the theory of viscoelasticity. One segment is found to contain about six monomer units.