MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

OF POLYMERS
Assignment 1

Submitted to Dr Atif Javaid

Submitted by Bisma Ali (2015-PE-07)
 Shear Properties of Polymer

What is shear?
A shear is the load or force applied parallel to the plane of object producing a sliding effect on
the material and cause the dislocation of angles of material. Mostly the mechanical properties of
polymers are included in shear properties.
Shear force or load is of two type
 Shear stress
 Shear strain

Shear stress:
When stress is applied parallel to the plane it is known as shear stress. It is denoted by τ. This
type of stress does not fracture the material. When a shear stress is applied a permanent change
in shape of material will occur.

Shear strain:
When a stress act upon a body it produces deformation in the body and dislocation of angles will
occur and is measured by tanϴ.

In the figure τ is the shaer stess applied on a rectangular body which deform the body and produces shear
strain ϒ.
Shaer strain is calculated from the ratio between displacment and original length which is equal to tanϴ.
deformation
Shear strain= = tanϴ
original length

Shear properties of a solid polymer:

Shear properties of polymers are used in many applications especially when polymers are used
for structural applications or when polymer is subjected to stress or load.

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Consider the case of a body having uniform composition (homogenous body) and having same
properties in all directions (isotropic). For such case the mechanical response depend on two
constants i.e. shear modulus G and poison’s ratio v.
Consider the simple shearing effect on a solid body. The body is of cube shape which is
deformed by a force F acting on a parallel plane Ao produce deformation.

Fig. 1 Solid Polymeric body

When small stress is applied on a cube, deformation produced is small and lies within elastic
region and on the removal of stress the cube will regain its original position. In this region shear
stress (τ) is directly proportional to shear strain (ϒ) and obeys hooks law which is given by:
τ=G ϒ
Where G is the shear modulus and measure the stiffness of material. It is the slope of stress strain
curve and is the ratio of change in shear stress ∆τ to the deformation produced in form of shear
strain ∆ϒ.
The reciprocal shear modulus G is called shear compliance J and is used when polymer show
linear viscoelastic behavior and is defined as
1 1
=
𝜏 𝐺ϒ
J =1/G
1 𝐽
=
𝜏 ϒ
ϒ = Jτ
In most cases, the stress strain behavior of a sample being sheared is measured in terms of
engineering stress and strain in which original cross sectional area of the specimen is considered.
Here shear stress is defined as force divided by the undeformed area in which shear force will
act.

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 τ= F/A
And the engineering strain depend upon the angle of deformation tanϴ and is the ratio of amount
of deformation produced ∆x to the height h
∆x
ϒ=tanϴ = ℎ

Within an elastic deformation region and for isotropic material (bodies in which the properties do
not depend on position) hook’s law is valid and shear modulus can be related to poison’s ratio v.
Poison’s ratio:
It is the ratio between contractional strain to extensional strain in stretching direction. Strain due
to tensile deformation is considered as positive and strain due to compressive deformation is
negative

V= -ɛcont/ɛexten
for a perfectly isotropic elastic materials the value of poisons ratio is 0.25
Poisons ratio is related to elastic modulus K, shear modulus G and young’s modulus for isotropic
body through generalized hook’s law foe 3-D body as follows
1+𝑣 𝑣
eij = σij - σkk δij
𝐸 𝐸

δij is the Kronecker Delta and its value is 1 if i=j and is 0 if i≠j.
if we consider that i≠j then the above equation will become
1+𝑣
eij = σij
𝐸

the above equation can be written as

ϒ 1+𝑣
= τ (i)
2 𝐸

from definition of hooks law

τ=G ϒ
Consider half side of rectangle than
𝜏 ϒ
=G
2 2
ϒ 𝜏
=
2 2𝐺

Put ϒ/2 in equation 1

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 𝜏 1+𝑣
= τ
2𝐺 𝐸

On rearranging
𝐸
2G =
1+𝑣

Mechanical properties of polymers:

Shear properties basically depend upon all the mechanical properties of a polymer i.e.
 Strength
 Percent Elongation to Break (Ultimate Elongation):
 Toughness
 Viscoelasticity
 Stress and strain behavior
And all these properties will effect the modulus and other properties

1) Strength:
Strength is defined as the load or stress required to break a sample. Strength can be of many
types including
 tensile strength (uniaxial stretching of polymer)
 compression strength ( compressing of polymer)
 flexural strength (bending of polymer)
 torsional strength (twisting of polymer)
 impact strength (hammering or breaking of polymer)
there are many factors which effect the strength of polymer which includes
a) Molecular weight:
The tensile strength of polymer increases with increase in molecular weight. Higher the
molecular weight higher will be the tensile strength. The tensile strength is related to
molecular weight by the following equation:
A
𝜎 = 𝜎ꝏ − M

Where 𝜎ꝏ is the tensile strength of polymer with molecular weight of infinity, A is constant and
M is the actual molecular weight.
At low molecular weight the polymer chains are loosely bonded to each other and the van der
wall forces are weak and can easily move which correspond to low strength of polymer. In case
of large molecular weight the chains are very large that they start to form entanglement which
give strength to polymer.

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 b) Cross linking:
Cross linking increases the strength of polymer. Higher the cross links higher will be the
entanglements which restrict the flow of polymer and increases its strength.

c) Crystallinity:
Crystallinity of a polymer increases its strength. Higher the crystalline region in a polymer
molecule, stronger will be the van der wall attractions and inter molecular bonding will be
more significant which results in higher strength

Shear strength:
Shear strength is the maximum amount of shear strength that a material can bear without
fracturing in a direction parallel to the material. Where the strength of polymer depend on the
above mentioned factor. Shear strength of polymers can be measured using ASTM d732.

2) Percent Elongation to Break (Ultimate Elongation):

It is defined as the change in length of a material before it fracture. It is also a measure of
ductility of a material that how much energy is stored in material before it fracture. Brittle
polymers have low value of percentage elongation and ductile polymers have high value of
percentage elongation to break value.
Ceramics have very low value(less than 1 %), thermosets also have low value(less than 5%),
metals have moderate value (in between 1-50%) and thermoplastic have high values of
elongation at break.

Fig. 2 Elongation to break of polymer

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3) Young’s Modulus:
Young’s modulus also known as modulus of elasticity or tensile modulus is the ratio of stress to
strain in an elastic region. It also measures the stiffness of a material
tensile stress(σ)
E=
tensile strain(ε)

Fig. 3 Young’s modulus of polymer

4) Toughness:
It is defined as the ability of a material to absorb energy and deform plastically without
fracturing. It can also be measur0ed from the area under the stress strain curve. Ductile material
have more area under the curve and have high value of toughness whereas brittle material have
less area under the curve and will fracture just after the yield point and have low value of
toughness.
More the toughness of polymer higher will be the value to shear stress to deform a material at a
particular angel.

Fig. 4 toughness of polymeric material

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Different types of polymeric behaviors:

Fig.5 stress strain behavior of different types of polymeric material

The above graph shows the behavior of different types of polymers.

The first line for brittle polymers mostly include rigid and hard plastics such as polystyrene,
polymethyl methacrylate or polycarbonates which can bear a large amount of stress but they do
not have elongation at break value and have very less area under the curve. These type of
polymers are strong but no very tough and are included in brittle polymers.
There will no or very less value of shear stress because the martials brittle and when break with
the sudden application of shear strain.
Ductile polymers include polyethylene and polypropylene and are considered as flexible
polymers because of the large area under the curve. The can absorb a large amount of stress
before fracture but a permanent shape change will occur after yield point.
When shear stress is applied on such materials they will deform their shape and produce a
change in shape
Highly elastic polymers (elastomers) mainly include polyisoprene, polybutadiene and
polyisobutylene behave differently from most polymers. They have low value of modulus

References:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118950623.app1/pdf
http://www.pslc.ws/macrog/mech.htm
http://polymerdatabase.com/polymer%20physics/Mechanical%20Properties2.html

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