The Effects of Loading History and Manufacturing Methods on the Mechanical Behavior of High-Density Polyethylene

Abstract

This article describes a series of experiments conducted to determine the effects of loading history and manufacturing techniques on mechanical behavior of high- density polyethylene (HDPE). The main reason for undertaking the research was to investigate multiple creep, multiple relaxation, and cyclic loading on uniaxial tension. The samples used for tensile tests were obtained from extruded pipe and compression-molded sheets. The stress—strain responses of both samples under uniaxial tensile were found to be independent of the loading history. It was observed that the compression-molded specimens exhibit greater deformation ratio than the extruded specimen. Understanding the deformation behavior under different loading can offer the designer of high-density polyethylene products reliable data relevant to practical applications.