Relation between the structure of polymers and their dynamic mechanical and electrical properties. Part I. Some alpha-substituted acrylic ester polymers

Elastic Hysteresis and a Catastrophic Wear Mechanism for Polymers

It is now accepted that hysteresis loss in sub-surface regions plays a major role in rolling friction; however, its influence upon wear has received little consideration. Similarly, the temperatures generated by frictional heating have been analysed only in terms of those mechanisms of sliding friction that result in heat generation at the surface. It is shown that hysteresis loss can cause significant increases in the sub-surface temperatures of rolling bodies with catastrophic consequences for their wear and damage. This mechanism of failure may apply to a wide range of engineering situations including nylon cams, automobile and aircraft tyres and the fibre-filled supercalender rolls used in paper mills.

Alpha and beta mechanical dispersions in high sugar/acyl gellan mixtures

The real (G') and imaginary (G") components of the complex modulus have been measured between 0.1 and 100 rad/s in the temperature range of 70--55 degrees C for a mixture of 1% high acyl gellan with 79% glucose syrup, and 79% glucose syrup. The method of reduced variables gave superposed curves of G' and G" as a function of timescale of measurement, which matched the thermal profiles of shear modulus obtained by scanning at the constant rate of 1 degrees C/min. Data of the gellan/co-solute mixture could be analysed in terms of two distinct mechanisms. For the alpha dispersion, G' and G" superposed with the horizontal reduction factor a(T) whose temperature dependence followed an equation of the Williams-Landel-Ferry form. Mechanical spectra of the beta dispersion also superposed with the factor a(T) whose temperature dependence, however, corresponded to a constant energy of activation. Relaxation spectra have been calculated for both dispersions. Those for the alpha mechanism were attributed to the chain backbone motions and the friction coefficient per tetrasaccharide repeat unit in backbone motion was calculated from the extended Rouse theory. When the contribution of the solvent alone was studied, no spectra for the beta dispersion were observed supporting the hypothesis of the dispersion being attributed to the side-chain motions of the acyl groups. The spectra of the beta mechanism were relatively broader than for the alpha dispersion. The relative location of the beta dispersion on the time scale or temperature range was found to be between the alpha dispersion (glass transition region) and the glassy state.

Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis of dental polymers. I. Heat-cured poly(methyl methacrylate)-based materials

The visco-elastic characteristics of homogeneous, heterogeneous and fibre-reinforced poly(methyl methacrylate) for use as denture base resins were measured by a dynamic mechanical thermal analyser in the frequency range 0.033-90 Hz. Dynamic Young's modulus of both polyethylene woven yarn and the polyaramid plain fabric-reinforced acrylics showed considerable improvement over the conventional denture base, whereas the carbon fibre-reinforced acrylic produced results lower than expected. From the loss tangent curves of the homogeneous and heterogeneous methacrylates their transition temperatures were recorded and the reciprocals of both the alpha and beta absorption temperatures were plotted against frequency to obtain their respective activation energies.