INFLUENCE OF THICKNESS AND PROCESSING HISTORY ON FATIGUE FRACTURE OF NYLON-66 .1. CRACK-PROPAGATION MEASUREMENTS

The influence of sample thickness on fatigue crack propagation rates in injection molded nylon 66 was determined by preparing 12.7 mm thick plaques along with more conventional 3.0 mm thick samples. Initial results suggested a large effect of thickness as the crack propagation rates were accelerated in the thicker samples and the stress dependence was also increased. Since the calculated thickness for a plane stress to plane strain transition in nylon 66 is 9.0 mm, it was thought that these results were related to the stress state at the crack tip. However, a more thorough study of the thicker plaques has now demonstrated that neither the magnitude nor the stress dependence of the fatigue crack growth rates is necessarily changed under plane strain conditions as similar results be obtained for thick and thin plaques. It is suggested that the earlier results were confounded by a previously unrecognized processing history effect which does accelerate fatigue fracture. The latter effect is shown by thermal analysis and optical microscopy to be related to a rearrangement of the polymer network during melt processing.