STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR RADIATION ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ACETAL RESINS DELRIN AND CELCON

Abstract

Two commercial acetal resins (Delrin and Celcon) were exposed to reactor radiation at room temperature in air to five levels of absorbed dose. The tensile strength of both resins was found to decrease rapidly with increasing dose: 50% of the original value is reached at about 0.3 gigaergs/ GM(C) for Delrin and at about 0.75 gigaergs/gm(C) for Celcon. At about 1 gigaerg/gm(C), both materials had virtually lost their mechanical usefulness. The Shore-D hardness of the two resins was found to decrease exponentially with dose. On the basis of weight-loss measurements, the G-values for formaldehyde formation were conservatively estimated to be 15.4 and 8.9 for Delrin and Celcon, respectively. Depolymerization appears to be the predominant mode of degradation.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 31, 1964
Accession Number
AD0604016

Entities

People

  • E. G. Fritz

Organizations

  • General Dynamics

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acetal Resins
  • Body Weight
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Delrin
  • Dissolved Gases
  • Elongation
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Polymers
  • Radiation
  • Radiation Effects
  • Resins
  • Shape
  • Stress Strain Relations
  • Stresses
  • Tensile Strength
  • Tensile Stress

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Polymer Science and Engineering.