Plane stress fracture toughness of physically aged plasticized PETG as assessed by the essential work of fracture (EWF) method

The plane stress fracture toughness of amorphous copolyester (PETG) sheets plasticized by various amount of neopentylglycol dibenzoate (NPGDB in 0, 5, 10 and 20 wt%) was studied in as-received (AR) and rejuvenated (RJ) states by adopting the essential work of fracture (EWF) method. EWF tests were performed on deeply double-edge notched tensile loaded (DDEN-T) specimens at various deformation rates (2,10 and 100 mm/min) at room temperature. It was established that physical aging strongly affected the EWF terms. The specific yielding-related EWF increased with increasing deformation rate and decreased with increasing plasticizer content. The specific non-essential work and its necking-related constituent, which changed parallel to each other, remained constant up to 10 wt% NPGDB content and decreased afterwards. The plastic zone in the DDEN-T specimens was formed by cold drawing which is governed by the entanglement structure. This was demonstrated by the shape recovery of the plastic zone in the broken DDEN-T specimens after heating them above the T_g of the related PETG compound.