Introduction

When polymers are applied for any practical purpose it is necessary to know, among other things, what maximum loads they can sustain without failing. Failure under load is the subject of the present chapter.

In chapter 7 the phenomenon of creep in a viscoelastic solid is considered. For an ideal linear viscoelastic medium the deformation under a constant stress eventually becomes constant provided that e3(t) in equation (7.4) is zero. If the load is removed at any time, the ideal material recovers fully. For many polymers these conditions are approximately satisfied for low stresses, but the curves (b) and (c) in fig. 6.2 indicate a very different type of behaviour that may be observed for some polymers under suitable conditions. For stresses above a certain level, the polymer yields. After yielding the polymer either fractures or retains a permanent deformation on removal of the stress.

Just as linear viscoelastic behaviour with full recovery of strain is an idealisation of the behaviour of some real polymers under suitable conditions, so ideal yield behaviour may be imagined to conform to the following: for stresses and strains below the yield point the material has time-independent linear elastic behaviour with a very low compliance and with full recovery of strain on removal of stress; at a certain stress level, called the yield stress, the strain increases without further increase in the stress; if the material has been strained beyond the yield stress there is no recovery of strain.