Multiple Cracks Propagate Simultaneously in Polymer Liquids in Tension

On the origin of brittle fracture of entangled polymer solutions and melts

“…Progress on the experimental side has recently been made by the seminal work of Huang et al [21] and Huang and Hassager [22] on well characterized monodisperse polystyrenes (PSs) dispersed in oligomeric styrene (OS) via VADER 1000, Rheo Filament ApS, a commercially available filament stretching rheometer [23]. By measuring the local diameter of the polymer sample during elongation, the true Hencky strain and strain rate can be determined, while from the global deformation of the sample, only nominal values of strain and strain rate can be obtained.…”

Brittle fracture of polymer transient networks

“…• C. The imaging of a filament during its stretching is performed using a high speed camera (Photron Mini UX100) coupled with the VADER 1000 rheometer Huang et al (2016c). Because the active feedback control cannot be used concomitantly with the imaging, the kinematic trajectory of the top plate is defined by feedforward control parameters Marín et al (2013).…”

“…Filament stretching rheometry was successfully used to measure the tensile stress of associative polymer networks and wormlike micelles before fracture Rothstein (2003); Bhardwaj et al (2007); Tripathi et al (2006). A substantial improvement has been recently achieved by coupling filament stretching rheometry to a fast imaging of the filament, allowing one not only to visualize but also to quantify the crack nucleation and propagation Huang et al (2016b).…”

Highly Anisotropic Glassy Polystyrenes Are Flexible

“…The authors further reported that the tensile strength increased with the stretch rate and strain above T g . Generally speaking, when a PS melt is stretched at a fixed rate above T g , the transient stress increases with increasing strain, until a saturation value (steady stress) is reached [16][17], or an elastic fracture takes place [18]. Fig.…”