The elastic moduli of anisotropic polymers having a lamellar texture

Abstract

A model for a semi-crystalline polymer having a welldefined lamellar texture is considered in which the orientation of the lamellar planes, as deduced from lowangle X-ray diffraction studies, is taken into account. The moduli along the crystallographica-,b- andc-axis are calculated on the basis of interlamellar shear mechanism for a 60% crystalline polymer (LDPE) and compared with the experimental values. The broad agreement is shown to be reasonable.