Computer simulation of the fracture of oriented polymers via chain rupture mechanism

Numerical simulation of the fracture of a system of polymer chains via chain rupture (resulting in the formation of two macroradicals) was performed, based on a previously published kinetic model. It is shown that the dependence of the effective value of activation energy U upon the stress σ has three components: for the first and the third components U(σ) can be approximated by straight lines, while the second component is a plateau with U ≃ D 2 (D 2 is the dissociation energy of the unstresses macroradicals). The radical chain reactions substantially dimonish the durability under stress of the first and second components of U(Ğ).