ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS CRACKING RESISTANCE OF HIPS UNDER CYCLIC LOADING USING CRACKED ROUND BAR SPECIMENS

The service life of polymers depends strongly on their loading conditions and the environment surrounding them. Prolonged contact of a polymer with an oily or fatty environment increases the tendency of crazing and thus shorten the service life. The objective of this paper was to investigate two different high-impact polystyrene polymers (HIPS) in terms of their environmental stress cracking resistance (ESCR) in air and sunflower oil environments by cyclic testing. It was shown that the HIPS grade with bigger rubber particles, even though it has lower short-term mechanical performance in tensile modulus, yield strength, and notched impact strength, is preferrable in terms of ESCR and should be used in fatty environment applications.
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