Impact speed dependency of the ductile failure threshold temperature for a plasticized polyvinylchloride

With the goal of ensuring the security of passengers for automotive industry, the present work addresses the temperature and impact speed envelope allowing ductile failure of plasticized PVC to be obtained. A database of about 250 test results has been constructed for various conditions at ten test temperatures, four impact speeds and two specimen geometries (with or without scoring). The desired ductile failure was characterized by the shape of the load versus deflection curve together with the fracture surface morphology obtained. The temperatures for obtaining ductile failure threshold ( T_dth ) have been plotted as a function of the impact speeds for the two geometries. A gap of 20 ^∘ C on the T_dth was highlighted between the two geometries. Additionally, the impact strength of the plasticized PVC under study was estimated to be 0.25 kJ/m ^2 .