Fracture mechanics on polyethylene/polybutene-1 peel films

Sealed low-density polyethylene/isotactic polybutene-1 (PE-LD/iPB-1) peel films were investigated in this study, in consideration of fracture mechanics concepts. The T-peel test and the fixed arm peel test were mainly used. A common analysis of peel curves contains only the determination of the peel force to evaluate the peel behavior. However, the existence of significantly different total peel energies necessitates the implementation of energy-determined fracture mechanics parameters in the evaluation of the peel behavior, e.g., the adhesive fracture energy release rate. The peel properties were characterized in dependence on the iPB-1 content as well as on the peel angle. The T-peel test revealed an exponential decrease of the adhesive energy release rate with increasing iPB-1 content. The fixed arm peel test investigations revealed two ranges, the interlaminar and the translaminar crack propagation ranges, which could only be characterized using fracture mechanics parameters. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.