Lifetime assessment of engineering thermoplastics

The life expectancy of thermoplastics in durable applications varies from about 10 years to 50 and even 100 years in certain cases. It calls for an accelerated testing of material and structures. The challenges of accelerated testing for lifetime are (a) to reproduce the mechanisms of field failures and (b) to develop a reliable procedure for extrapolation of a relatively short test data into long-term service conditions. Acceleration of fracture by high stress level turns to be inadequate, since the fracture mechanisms change with stress level. Acceleration of testing for lifetime by elevated temperature is the most widely used technique at the present. This paradigm, however, faces a problem associated with the changes in the mechanism and kinetics of slow crack growth (SCG). At a certain combination of load and temperature, a transition from a continuous SCG to discontinuous, stepwise crack propagation has been recorded. Optical and scanning electron microscopy observations suggest that the change of SCG mechanisms is closely related to the material ability to form in front of the growing crack a stable process zone that consists of single or multiple crazes and/or shear bands. The crack acceleration in the continuous growth mode is observed to be significantly higher than that in stepwise propagation. Such changes in the mechanism and kinetics of SCG are associated with a transition from a ductile to brittle behavior of microfibers within the process zone. It is referred to as ductile–brittle transition of the second kind (DBT2) based on a resemblance with well-known ductile–brittle transition in dynamic impact resistance. DBT2 is presented in form of SCG mechanisms map in temperature–stress intensity factor coordinates. SCG mechanism map implies certain limitations for extrapolation of conventional temperature accelerated test data to the service conditions of plastic components. An alternative to conventional accelerated testing approach to evaluate lifetime of plastics structures is proposed in this paper. It consists of three steps. The first is a characterization of the defects population that may be responsible for fracture initiation. Formulation of constitutive equations of fracture process based on specially designed tests is the second step. Numerical simulation of fracture process using constitutive equations developed within the second step and evaluation of the lifetime of plastic structure is the third step. A validation testing of the proposed program is required.