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Fracture Mechanics

  • Chapter
Fracture Behaviour of Polymers

Abstract

It has been shown (see Chapter 2 and reference 1) that the theoretical stress to cause cleavage fracture in a brittle solid is of the order of E/10; that is, one-tenth of the Young’s modulus. The modulus of a brittle polymer is typically 3 GPa and so the theoretical strength of such a material should be 300 MPa. The measured fracture strengths of polymers are well below the theoretical value (typically 10–100 MPa), as is the case for many other materials. This shortfall in strength was recognised many years ago by Griffith2 who showed that the relatively low strength of a brittle solid could be explained by the presence of flaws which act as stress concentrators. This hypothesis has led to the development of a large body of experimental and theoretical work which is now termed fracture mechanics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, Exhibition Road, London, UK

    A. J. Kinloch

  2. Department of Materials, Queen Mary College, University of London, Mile End Road, London, UK

    R. J. Young

Authors
  1. A. J. Kinloch
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  2. R. J. Young
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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Kinloch, A.J., Young, R.J. (1995). Fracture Mechanics. In: Fracture Behaviour of Polymers. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1594-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1594-2_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-1596-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1594-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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