Fatigue behaviour of industrial polymers - a microbeam small-angle X-ray scattering investigation

The results of a microbeam small-angle X-ray scattering investigation performed at ID13/ESRF on the machine fatigue induced by short-term high force bending of an industrial polystyrene sample are presented. A clear indication of craze formation in the deformation zone is seen. For this zone the results suggest a model of cylindrical voids, their radii following a lognormal distribution. Furthermore, the craze's orientation shows a locally varying angular distribution around the axis normal to the force direction.