Crazing of polystyrene containing two rubber balls: A model for ABS plastics

Abstract

AbstractIn order to study the crazing behavior in rubber‐toughened glassy polymers, polystyrene samples containing two rubber balls of the same diameter with varying separations have been prepared. They were subjected to simple tension, and their crazing behavior was observed. When the two balls are close together, the craze‐initiation stress is considerably lower than that of single‐ball samples. With increase in the distance between the two balls the craze‐initiation stress increases at first almost linearly and levels off when l/d reaches about 1.45, where l and d are the center‐to‐center distance and the diameter of the balls, respectively. When l is sufficiently small, the crazes are seen to develop extensively at the inner surfaces of the balls and finally bridge with each other. The crazes bridged between the balls expand largely in the plane perpendicular to the applied load.