Crack Toughness Behaviour of ABS Materials

Abstract

It is well known that toughness, defined in the engineering sense as the material resistance against stable and unstable crack propagation or fracture, is a highly important material property. Since excessively small values of toughness often restrict the application fields of polymeric materials, various ways derived from materials science of toughening brittle polymers (for instance SAN) have been developed (such as blending with or without compatibilizer, and copolymerization). This toughening is achieved by heterogenization of the material, i.e. incorporation of fmely dispersed rubber particles into the matrix material [1]. Morphological parameters such as particle size and distance, matrix—particle adhesion, and the internal structure of particles, which vary with production conditions (i.e. synthesis and processing), strongly affect the morphology—toughness correlations since the processes of stable and unstable crack initiation and propagation and of energy dissipation are influenced in different ways.