Mechanics of polymers /
R. G. C. Arridge
- ix, 246 p. : il. ; 23 cm.
Incluye referencias bibliográficas e índice
This book attempts to give an introduction to the language and literature of polymers for students of engineering and of materials science. It should serve as a link between the more practical aspects of plastics and the study of the funda¬mental properties of the polymers from which they are made. It is to be hoped that the book will enable students in their second or third year in materials science or engineering to acquire sufficient knowledge of the behaviour of polymers to be able to deal with practical problems such as, for example, the understanding of the properties of textile fibres, both natural and synthetic; of the many plastics in common and increasing use today such as synthetic leather; and if they are biologically inclined, the properties of biopolymers like collagen to be found in living tissue. In addition the book should provide sufficient background to allow the student to consult more advanced texts and to read with profit the extensive literature. Polymers were for a long time primarily the concern of chemists, and it is still the chemist of course, who discovers new polymers or new ways of synthesizing oíd ones. However, the physical properties of polymers have, during the last thirty years, received increasing attention, particularly as the engineering uses of plastics have grown. Increasingly today the disciplines and outlooks of metal physics and metallurgy influence the research of polymer physicists, in contrast to the earlier influence of chemistry. The complete study of polymers is, how¬ever, a science in itself, embracing parts of chemistry, biophysics, crystallography, electromagnetism, statistics, and mechanics. Scope of the book. Chapter 1 interrelates the structure and properties of polymers and other materials and shows why polymers cannot behave in the same way as metáis or ceramics. In Chapters 2 and 3 the two most important properties of polymers, the time- and temperature-dependance of their physical behaviour, are studied theoretically with reference to simple models. In Chapter 4 examples are given of observations by mechanical testing of this temperature- and time-dependance. In Chapter 5 the third unusual feature of polymers, their ability to undergo very large reversible extensions, is analysed theoretically. It is of im-portance both to rubber elasticity and to the study of the yield and fracture of all polymers. In Chapter 6 anisotropy is discussed, such as is caused by rolling, drawing, or extrusión of polymers into fibres or films. In Chapter 7 the behaviour…