The mechanical and optical properties of the well known high polymers used in photoelasticity and photoplasticity, that is polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate of bisphenol A (PCBA), under static and dynamic loads with intermediate loading rates (loading rate about 8 x 10s N m-2 s-l), were determined. The dynamic loads were applied to the specimens by dropping a weight from various heights and were measured by a piezoelectric type of transducer. The mechanical properties of the abovementioned materials were determined by using strain gauges, while the measurements of the optical properties were made by means of an interferometric technique recently developed for static loading by Theocaris and Gdoutos. It was found that the ratio of the elastic moduli in PMMA under static and dynamic loads was equal to 0.80, while in PCBA this ratio was equal to unity. Poisson's ratio, however, for the aforesaid materials, had the same value under both kinds of loading. Interesting results for the dependence of the stress-optical constants of PMMA and PCBA on the loading time are also given.
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