Understanding of polymer scratch

What is it about?

Following the ASTM and ISO test standards, a series of scratch tests were carried out on four categories of polymers: I) ductile and strong, II) ductile and weak, III) brittle and weak, and IV) brittle and strong. The scratch damage features and detailed damage mechanisms were investigated. Various scratch damage mechanisms were identified for the different categories of polymers. Besides the stress fields experienced by the polymer during scratch were determined using three-dimensional finite element methods modeling.

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Why is it important?

A better understanding of the relationship between the scratch damage process and material properties is obtained in this work and summarized as a scratch damage evolution map. The results can be utilized to identify the material properties needed to prevent undesirable scratch damage mechanisms and furtherly provide a good guidance to improve the scratch resistance of polymers.