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Effects of Processing Techniques on Mechanical Properties of Selected EFFECTS OF PROCESSING TECHNIQUES ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SELECTED POLYMERS Yao Dong Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2013 APPROVED: Phillip Foster, Major Professor Witold Brostow, Committee Member Seifollah Nasrazadani, Committee Member Haifeng Zhang, Committee Member Enrique Barbieri, Chair of the Department of Engineering Technology Costas Tsatsoulis, Dean of the College of Engineering Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Dong, Yao. Effects of Processing Techniques on Mechanical Properties of Selected Polymers. Master of Science (Engineering Systems), May 2013, 124 pp., 60 tables, 82 illustrations, references, 17 titles. The mechanical properties of a polymer represent the critical characteristics to be considered when determining the applications for it. The same polymer processed with different methods can exhibit different mechanical properties. The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference in mechanical properties of the selected polymers caused by different processing techniques and conditions. Three polymers were studied, including low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), and NEXPRENE® 1287A. Samples were processed with injection molding and compression molding under different processing condition. Tensile and DMA tests were performed on these samples. The acquired data of strain at break from the tensile tests and storage modulus from the DMA were utilized to calculate brittleness. Calculated brittleness values were used to perform analysis of variance (ANOVA) to investigate the statistical significance of the processing technique and condition. It was found that different processing techniques affect the brittleness significantly. The processing technique is the major factor affecting brittleness of PP and NEXPRENE, and the processing temperature is the major factor affecting brittleness of LDPE. Copyright 2013 by Yao Dong ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to express my appreciation to my major advisor Dr. Philip Foster, for his continuous support of my Master’s thesis study. I am truly grateful to my committee members. Dr. Witold Brostow always listened and gave advises during this program. He taught me skills and approaches to complete this research. This thesis could not have been completed without his expertise, patience, and guidance. Dr. Seifollah Nasrazadani and Dr. Haifeng Zhang also provided their great assistance and helpful suggestions for writing this thesis. I would also like to sincerely thank the professors, staff, and students in UNT Lab of Material Science and Engineering, including the previous lab manager Tea Datashvili, the current manager Joshua Wahrmund, Dr. Kevin Menard (works for Perkin Elmer), Dr. Haley Lobland, and undergraduate student Helen Xiong, Austin Richards, and Gregory Granowski. The experiments could not have been completed without their help. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, for their unconditional support and encouragements for my education. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .........................................................................................x Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................1 1.1 Background and Motivation .......................................................................1 1.2 Objectives ...................................................................................................2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................3 2.1 Mechanical Properties of Polymers ...........................................................3 2.2 Previous Studies on Processing the Same Polymer with Different Techniques .................................................................................................5 2.3 Descriptions and Characteristics of Materials to be Tested in the Study ..7 3. PROCESSING TECHNIQUES AND EQUIPMENT .....................................10 3.1 Injection Molding.....................................................................................10 3.2 Compression Molding ..............................................................................13 4. TESTING TECHNIQUES ...............................................................................17 4.1 The Standard and Geometry of Samples Used in This Study ..................17 4.2 Tensile Test ..............................................................................................21 4.3 Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) ...................................................24 5. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN ...........................................................................27 6. PROCEDURES AND PARAMETER VARIATIONS ...................................31 iv 6.1 Injection Molding.....................................................................................31 6.2 Compression Molding ..............................................................................32 6.3 Tensile Test ..............................................................................................34 6.4 DMA Test ................................................................................................35 7. RESULTS AND DATA COLLECTION ........................................................37 7.1 Tensile Tests ............................................................................................37 7.2 DMA Tests ...............................................................................................40 8. COMPARISONS AND DISCUSSIONS .........................................................42 8.1 LDPE Tensile Test Results ......................................................................42 8.2 PP Tensile Test Results ............................................................................46 8.3 NEXPRENE® 1287A Tensile Test Results .............................................51 8.4 LDPE DMA Results ................................................................................55 8.5 PP DMA Results ......................................................................................56 8.6 NEXPRENE DMA Results......................................................................57 9. BRITTLENESS CALCULATION ..................................................................58 10. DATA ANALYSIS ..........................................................................................60 10.1 Compression Molded LDPE ....................................................................61 10.2 Compression Molded PP..........................................................................62 10.3 Compression Molded NEXPRENE® 1287A ...........................................63 10.4 Injection and Compression Molded LDPE ..............................................64 10.5 Injection and Compression Molded PP....................................................64 10.6 Injection and Compression Molded NEXPRENE ...................................65 11. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................69 APPENDIX A: TENSILE TEST RESULTS ...............................................................69 v APPENDIX B: DMA RESULTS ................................................................................92 APPENDIX C: ANOVA RESULTS .........................................................................105 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................123 vi LIST OF TABLES Page 2.1 Physical Properties of LDPE .............................................................................8 2.2 Physical Properties of PP ...................................................................................8 2.3 Properties of NEXPRENE® 1287A ...................................................................9 4.1 Standard Values and Descriptions of Specimen Dimensions ..........................18 5.1 Parameters of Polymers Utilized in the Study .................................................28 5.2 Factors in Levels that are to be Used in a Random Factorial Design of Experiment .......................................................................................................29 5.3 Combinations of Temperatures for Injection Molding and Temperatures and Soak Pressures for Compression Molding .......................................................29 5.4 Sample Quantities by Manufacturing Process and Test ..................................30 6.4 Starting and End Temperatures for Three Polymer Samples Performing DMA Tests .................................................................................................................36 8.1 Tensile Results in Terms of Mean Values and Standard Deviations for Injection Molded LDPE ...................................................................................42 8.2 Tensile Results in Terms of Mean Values and Standard Deviations for Compression Molded LDPE ............................................................................43 8.3 Tensile Results in Terms of Mean Values and Standard Deviations for Injection Molded PP ........................................................................................47 8.4 Tensile Results in Terms of Mean
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