The expression revealing variation trend about radiation resistance of aromatic polymers serving in nuclear environment over absorbed dose

•Radiation resistance of aromatic polymers was studied.•Percolation theory was employed to elucidate the critical phenomenon.•A novel two-parameter radiation resistance model was proposed and verified.

For polymeric materials applied in nuclear environment, the macroscopic properties usually remain unchanged after irradiation for several years or decades up to a threshold dose at which the deterioration of materials begins to take place. In this paper, the general radiation response of aromatic polymers is firstly reviewed and discussed. Then percolation theory is employed innovatively to elucidate the critical phenomenon over the service life for polymeric materials with high radiation resistance. For a better quantitative evaluation, a novel two-parameter radiation resistance model is proposed by the method of analogy between two nuclear-related phenomena. Six epoxy systems are employed from the published literatures to verify the novel model and the result shows that it is reliable and helpful in not only estimating the radiation damage over the service period but also multi-objective optimum design of polymeric materials.