Statistical viscoelastic and fracture mechanical properties of gel-cast ultra-oriented high-strength film threads of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene

For the first time, the statistical distribution of Young’s modulus and of strain at break of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) gel-cast highly oriented film threads have been investigated by employing the Weibull model. These have been produced by the multi-stage hot-zone drawing technique. It has been shown that the results of a large number of mechanical measurements for the two series of UHMWPE film threads drawn to an ultimate draw ratio ( λ ) of 120 from xerogels formed from 1.5% solutions of UHMWPE in decalin or paraffin oil (50 samples in each case) can be satisfactorily described in the framework of the standard Weibull distribution. The values of Weibull modulus and scale factor have been estimated for the two film threads series investigated. It has been found that the scatter in the experimental data depends on the solvent nature and the mechanical characteristic analysed. Graphical abstract ᅟ