Glassy polymers as photoplastic materials

Abstract

Polycarbonate of Bisphenol A (PCBA), which is a typical glassy polymer, presents a stress-strain curve in simple tension showing many similarities with load-extension diagrams of metals. This behaviour suggested the possibility of using glassy polymers and especially PCBA as model materials for studying plastic deformations in metals. However, significant differences between polymers and metals exist with regard to their yield behaviour. Considerable evidence is presented in this paper, which shows that there are qualitative and quantitative differences between the mechanisms of plastic deformation in metals and in glassy polymers. Therefore, an eventual use of such polymers as models for studying plastic behaviour may be made only to obtain qualitative results.