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

Mario Messiha, Andreas Frank, Florian Arbeiter, Gerald Pinter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Article number52357
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of applied polymer science
Volume139.2022
Issue number24
Early online date23 Mar 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jun 2022

Bibliographical note

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.

Keywords

  • crack initiation
  • cyclic cracked round bar test
  • hydrogen bonds
  • micro-deformation mechanisms
  • polyamides
  • slow crack growth

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