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Virginia Tech

Solid-state processing of thermoplastic polymers

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Although compaction and sintering of polymeric powders has been investigated since the early 1970's, this processing method is not widely used, possibly because the fundamental mechanisms which control compaction and sintering have never been fully understood. This study has made significant contributions to our understanding of compaction and sintering of polymers. It was demonstrated that mechanical properties (yield strength, modulus) and physical characteristics (degree of physical aging, glass transition temperature, presence of crystallinity) of the particles, and thus, powder processing, storage, and handling techniques, affect the ability of the polymer to be successfully compacted. The difficulties encountered in sintering polymeric compacts were explained in terms of a loss of configurational entropy of the polymer molecules during compaction, which caused large-scale dimensional recovery in the particles upon heating above T g. Hot compaction (above room temperature, but below Tg) was not found to be useful in eliminating recovery during pressureless sintering. However, consolidation of compacts formed at room temperature (by heating 10-20°C above T g and applying a small pressure (less than 50 kPa» was shown to be a promising processing method.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Materials Engineering Science
Department dc:contributor.department
Materials Engineering Science
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1996

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Vick, Linda
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Kander, Ronald G.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Davis, Richey M.
  • Dillard, David A.
  • Loos, Alfred C.
  • Love, Brian J.

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-08142006-110121
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/39161

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Vick, Linda. Solid-state processing of thermoplastic polymers. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39161