Experimental Verification of Polymer Microcracking, An

A graduate student, Seth Niesent, in the department of mechanical engineering has completed his research on polymer failure due to submicrocracks in the material. He developed a constitutive relationship based on kinetic theory and used this relationship to predict the strain response of PMMA (Plexiglas). He compared his predictions to experimental data, but the data for the transverse strain response were not available. The objective of my research was to collect the transverse strain data to verify the prediction that the strain response can be explained by the accumulation of submicrocracks. If successful, this failure criterion may be applicable to other polymers and fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials.