INFLUENCE OF GLASS-BEADS ON THE ELONGATIONAL VISCOSITY OF POLYETHYLENE WITH ANOMALOUS STRAIN-RATE DEPENDENCE OF THE STRAIN-HARDENING

The elongational viscosity of HDPE and the same polymer filled with gl ass beads was measured. The strain-hardening of neat HDPE showed anoma lous strain rate dependence; the behaviour became weaker as the strain rate increased. The strain-hardening of the HDPE filled with glass be ads weakened with increasing bead contents. Suppression of the strain- hardening by the beads is stronger at high strain rate, where the stra in-hardening of neat HDPE is weak. Especially, the strain-hardening di d not appear if the bead contents and the strain rate are sufficiently high. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.