Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.57, No.1, 13-21, 2017
A simple intrinsic measure for rapid crack propagation in bimodal polyethylene pipe grades validated by elastic-plastic fracture mechanics analysis of data from instrumented Charpy impact test
Conventional test procedures, such as the S4 test to analyze the resistance against rapid crack propagation (RCP) of plastic pipe materials are characterized by usage of a lot of material, are far from saving of time and they are-in need of special experimental set-ups. Therefore, in the last decade, small-scale accelerated reliable tests (SMART) are developed - worldwide to overcome the disadvantage of such conventional tests. In this article, fracture mechanics based analysis of instrumented Charpy impact test data for a set of bimodal high-density polyethylene pipe grades are compared with data of the conventional Charpy impact test. From this comparison the Charpy impact strength at -30 degrees C comes forth as a robust reproducible measure of the resistance to RCP and it is therefore proposed as a SMART method to rank materials with respect to RCP resistance. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 57:13-21, 2017. (c) 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers