Fracture of Polymers

Title: Fracture of Polymers
Date: Wednesday 8 January, 2003
Meeting Venue: Queen Mary, University of LONDON

Meeting aims:

To bring together fracture studies for various polymeric materials in which an energetics approach has been used. Contributions on fundamental aspects of fracture or the application of fundamental understanding to treat service behaviour will be welcomed. If there is sufficient interest, a poster session will be held for which any paper on polymer fracture falling within the scope and aims will be considered.

Organised by:

• The Polymer Physics Group of the Institute of Physics,
• The Royal Society of Chemistry and The Institute of Materials and
• The Rubber in Engineering Group of The Institute of Materials.

Registration with:

Dr. James Busfield,
Department of Materials,
Queen Mary, University of London,
Mile End Road, London,
E1 4NS, UK
or by Fax to: +44 (0)20 8981 9804
or by E-mail to j.busfield@qmul.ac.uk.

Fee:

The conference fee, which includes coffee, tea and the served lunch, is £60.00. One author per paper may register free of charge. Members of the IOP, the IOM3 and the RSC qualify for a reduced rate of £50.00 provided they give their affiliation and membership number. A student or retiree rate of £30 is available for a limited number.

Abstracts:

The completed abstracts for the fracture event can be views here.

The programme for the meeting:

10.30 COFFEE AND REGISTRATION

10.55 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

11.00 Review : FRACTURE MECHANICS METHODS AND SOME FACTORS AFFECTING FRACTURE FOR ELASTOMERS VA Coveney, S Jamil & DE Johnson. (University of the West of England)

11.25 COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT TEST PIECES FOR CHARACTERISING THE FRACTURE PROPERTIES OF RUBBER
J Kingston & AH Muhr (Rubber Consultants / TARRC).

11.50 CONTRIBUTIONS OF TIME-DEPENDENT AND CYCLIC CRACK GROWTH TO THE CRACK GROWTH BEHAVIOUR OF NON STRAIN-CRYSTALLISING ELASTOMERS JJC Busfield, CKL Davies, K Tsunoda and AG Thomas (Queen Mary, University of London)

12.15 GENERAL DISCUSSION

12.30 LUNCH

13.45 RESEARCHING THE STRAIN ENERGY AVAILABLE TO A PROPAGATING CRACK TIP IN DIFFERENT POLYMERS J.P. Dear (Imperial College)

14.10 CRACKING OF POLYMER SPHERES BY LOW-VELOCITY IMPACT MM Chaudhri and R Majzoub (University of Cambridge)

14.35 FAST FRACTURE IN HIGHLY-STRAINED ELASTOMER MEMBRANES CC Lawrence, GJ Lake and AG Thomas (University of East London)

15.00 THE THERMOPHYSICS OF ADIABATIC DECOHESION IN THERMOPLASTICS Patrick Leevers (Imperial College)

15.25 GENERAL DISCUSSION

15.45 TEA

16.00 CRITICAL TEARING ENERGY AS A CRITERION FOR FAILURE OF ELASTOMERIC COMPONENTS John Harris (MERL Ltd)

16.25 THE FRACTURE BEHAVIOUR OF HIGHLY ORIENTED TOUGHENED SEMI-CRYSTALLINE POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE J. Mohanraj, R. A. Duckett and I.M. Ward (University of Leeds)

16.50 COMBINED ENVIRONMENTAL AND MECHANICAL DEGRADATION OF THERMOPLASTIC POLYURETHANE ELASTOMERS Claude Hepburn (University of Ulster)

17.15 GENERAL DISCUSSION

17.30 CLOSE