TENSILE AND COMPRESSIVE DEFORMATION OF A SHORT-GLASS-FIBER-REINFORCEDLIQUID-CRYSTALLINE POLYMER

Results of tensile and compression tests on a short-glass-fiber-reinfo rced thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer are presented. The effect of strain rate on the compression stress-strain characteristics has b een investigated over a wide range of strain rates epsilon between 10( -4) and 350 s-1. The low-strain-rate tests were conducted using a scre w-driven universal tensile tester, while the high-strain-rate tests we re carried out using the split Hopkinson pressure bar technique. The c ompression modulus was shown to vary with log10 (epsilon) in a bilinea r manner. The compression modulus is insensitive to strain rate in the low-strain-rate regime (epsilon = 10(-4) - 10(-2) s-1), but it increa ses more rapidly with epsilon at higher epsilon. The compression stren gth changes linearly with log10 (epsilon) over the entire strain-rate range. The fracture surfaces were examined by scanning electron micros copy.