A Study on Small Punch Test to Characterize Mechanical Property of Aged High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

Abstract:

In this work, accelerated ultraviolet (UV) aging of high density polyethylene (HDPE) was prepared, and tensile tests, Shore D hardness test and small punch test (SPT) were carried out. The macroscopical morphology of tensile fracture and microscopical morphology of SPT have been observed successively. The result showed that HDPE aging significantly increased with the UV irradiation time, because of amount of microfiber dropping, the entanglement of molecular segments on the non-crystalline decreasing, and the difficulty degree of craze microfiber fracture reducing.After aging for over 504 hours, aged layer can be observed on specimens’ surface, meanwhile, polymer brittleness increased, tensile strength had no significant change, elongation at break declined 29.53%, and Shore hardness value increased 6.9%. SPT performed more susceptibly on aged HDPE, and the maximum load dropped more than 39%. This illustrated that SPT is more suitable for the assessment to aged HDPE, which could more focus on aged layer.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 734)
• Pages: 104-115
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.734.104
• Online since: April 2017
• Authors: Bo Zhao, Jing Guo, Yu Xin Yu, Xue Tao Zhang, Tong Xu, Bin An Shou
• Keywords: High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Small Punch Test (SPT), Ultraviolet Aging

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