TY - JOUR

T1 - On the slow crack growth process and associated structure–property relationships in polyamide 12 grades

AU - Messiha, Mario

AU - Frank, Andreas

AU - Arbeiter, Florian

AU - Pinter, Gerald

N1 - Funding Information: The research work of this paper was performed at the Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH (PCCL, Austria) within the framework of the K1 COMET‐program (Grant No. 879785), which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (Austria) and Federal Ministry for Economy, Family and Youth (Austria) with contributions by Evonik Operations GmbH (Germany) and the Montanuniversitaet Leoben (Austria). The PCCL is funded by the Austrian Government and the State Governments of Styria and Upper Austria. Special thanks go to Linda Schatz for the performance of crack freezing experiments and Jutta Geier for fractographic analysis via SEM. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Applied Polymer Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

PY - 2022/6/20

Y1 - 2022/6/20

N2 - The influence of micro-structural changes within polyamide 12 (PA12) grades on their resistance against crack initiation and subsequent Slow Crack Growth (SCG) was examined. Possible micro-deformation mechanisms and processes guiding slow crack extensions in PA12 are discussed. Special focus was put on the formation of plastic zones as predecessors to microscopic cracks prior to crack initiation via crack freezing analysis. Simultaneously, variations in the pure SCG resistance after a recorded craze-crack transition were determined via cyclic Cracked Round Bar (CRB) tests. In that context, a homologous series of PA12 grades of increasing molecular weight (MW), as well as a systematically developed series of PA12 grades incorporating a pigment and/or an impact modifier, were selected for this study. Results show a good correlation between the crack initiation resistance and the disentanglement resistance of PA12 chains as well as the size of the plastic zone. In that context, an increasing average MW, leads to increasing disentanglement resistances due to hydrogen bond effects. An impact modification promotes the development of notably larger plastic zones. Contrarily, colored grades exhibit a reduced plastic zone size, rendering a lower amount of dissipated energy before physical crack initiation. Pure SCG resistance follows a similar trend and is improved by high average MW as well as the use of impact modifier. Crack growth acceleration, however, is assumed to occur alongside the relatively weak interfaces between polymer matrix and pigments.

AB - The influence of micro-structural changes within polyamide 12 (PA12) grades on their resistance against crack initiation and subsequent Slow Crack Growth (SCG) was examined. Possible micro-deformation mechanisms and processes guiding slow crack extensions in PA12 are discussed. Special focus was put on the formation of plastic zones as predecessors to microscopic cracks prior to crack initiation via crack freezing analysis. Simultaneously, variations in the pure SCG resistance after a recorded craze-crack transition were determined via cyclic Cracked Round Bar (CRB) tests. In that context, a homologous series of PA12 grades of increasing molecular weight (MW), as well as a systematically developed series of PA12 grades incorporating a pigment and/or an impact modifier, were selected for this study. Results show a good correlation between the crack initiation resistance and the disentanglement resistance of PA12 chains as well as the size of the plastic zone. In that context, an increasing average MW, leads to increasing disentanglement resistances due to hydrogen bond effects. An impact modification promotes the development of notably larger plastic zones. Contrarily, colored grades exhibit a reduced plastic zone size, rendering a lower amount of dissipated energy before physical crack initiation. Pure SCG resistance follows a similar trend and is improved by high average MW as well as the use of impact modifier. Crack growth acceleration, however, is assumed to occur alongside the relatively weak interfaces between polymer matrix and pigments.

KW - crack initiation

KW - cyclic cracked round bar test

KW - hydrogen bonds

KW - micro-deformation mechanisms

KW - polyamides

KW - slow crack growth

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126859802&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/app.52357

DO - 10.1002/app.52357

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85126859802

VL - 139.2022

JO - Journal of applied polymer science

JF - Journal of applied polymer science

SN - 0021-8995

IS - 24

M1 - 52357

ER -