Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Oxidative Aging And Fracture Behavior Of Polymers And Composites: Theory, Modeling And Experiments, Shabnam Konica

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Polymers and their composites (PMC) have emerged as effective alternative materials in structural, aerospace, and automotive industries due to their lightweight and tunable properties compared to metals. However, these materials tend to degrade during their operations in extreme environments. In this work, two extreme conditions are considered: - i) high-temperature oxidative degradation of polymers and polymer-based composites ii) Fracture and damage of polymer-based composites under thermo-mechanical loading.

Polymer oxidation starts when oxygen from the ambient diffuses into the bulk material and initiates chemical reactions to develop a coarse, brittle oxide layer on the exposed surface. The oxidative degradation process is …