ELASTIC-MODULI OF SEMICRYSTALLINE POLYETHYLENES COMPARED WITH THEORETICAL MICROMECHANICAL MODELS FOR COMPOSITES

A large collection of data on Young's modulus and density of unfilled polyethylenes at ambient conditions has been compared with various competing theoretical mixing rules developed for composite micromechanics. The objective was to see if such theories usefully predict the dependence of stiffness on crystalline content in an archetypal isotropic semicrystalline thermoplastic polymer above its glass transition temperature. It was found that the self-consistent scheme derived by Hill and Budiansky from continuum micromechanics appears to have valid application to this system. The scheme naturally and coherently incorporates information on bulk and shear moduli and Poisson's ratios, while giving a good account of the main trend in the Young's modulus data. Conversely, other theoretical models frequently invoked in the polymer literature were explicitly found to be unsuitable for representing principal features of modulus-density relationships dictated by the data.