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Polymers
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Advances in Fracture and Failure of Polymers
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Advances in Fracture and Failure of Polymers

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Physics and Theory".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 896

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Behzad Vasheghani Farahani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electromechanical Systems and Metal Engineering, Soete Laboratory, Ghent University Technologiepark 46, Ghent, Belgium
Interests: mechanical engineering; numerical modelling; hydrogen embrittlement; fracture mechanics; fatigue; damage mechanics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on the fracture and failure of polymers aims to disseminate high-quality research in this area. Polymers are advanced materials with numerous applications and they are present in almost every aspect of our daily life. Therefore, to make the most of polymeric materials, technological advances must converge with chemical, physical, digital, and biological sciences.

The progress made in understanding the fracture, fatigue, and failure behavior of polymers and polymer composites has become the key to designing advanced material structures. This has created a demand for the development of new mathematical and physical models, new computational methods, and new experimental protocols, which will be used to characterize the mechanical and physical properties of polymers. At the same time, the application of these methods and models to various practical application scenarios has become important to overcome the shortcomings in the design of polymer composite structures.

Both original contributions and comprehensive reviews are welcome in this Special Issue “Advances in Fracture and Failure of Polymers”. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Mechanical and physical characterization of polymers;
  • Fracture, failure, fatigue, and damage of polymers;
  • Material manufacturing and forming: additive manufacturing, injection molding, molding, extrusion, etc.;
  • Material testing methods: tension, compression, impact, cycle, creep, etc.;
  • Numerical modelling: finite element methods, meshless methods;
  • Experimental techniques.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Behzad Vasheghani Farahani
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mechanical properties
  • fracture, failure, fatigue and damage of polymers
  • material manufacturing and forming
  • material testing methods
  • numerical modelling
  • experimental techniques

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 8308 KiB  
Article
Effect of Prepreg Composition on the Structure and Shear Strength of PEI/CF Laminates Fabricated by Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing
by Defang Tian, Vladislav O. Alexenko, Dmitry Yu. Stepanov, Dmitry G. Buslovich, Alexey A. Zelenkov and Sergey V. Panin
Polymers 2025, 17(11), 1468; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym17111468 - 25 May 2025
Abstract
In this study, laminates based on polyetherimide (PEI) with contents of carbon fibers (CFs) from 55 to 70 wt.% were fabricated by thermoforming (TF) and ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM) methods. The UAM laminates with CF contents above 55 wt.% possessed shear strengths lower [...] Read more.
In this study, laminates based on polyetherimide (PEI) with contents of carbon fibers (CFs) from 55 to 70 wt.% were fabricated by thermoforming (TF) and ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM) methods. The UAM laminates with CF contents above 55 wt.% possessed shear strengths lower by 40% in comparison with those of the TF ones, due to insufficient amounts of the binder in the prepregs to form reliable interlaminar joints. For enhancing the shear strength of the laminates with a CF content of 70 wt.%. up to the levels of the TF ones, extra resin layers with thicknesses of 50, 100, and 150 μm were deposited. By ranking the UAM parameters using the Taguchi method, it was possible to increase the shear strengths by 30% as compared to those of the trial laminates. Further improvements were achieved by artificial neural network (ANN) modeling. As a result, the use of the 50 µm thick extra resin layer made it possible to increase the shear strengths up to 50% relative to those of the trial laminates at a CF content of 70 wt.%. This improvement was achieved via minimizing the number of defects at the interlaminar interfaces. The dependences of both mechanical and structural characteristics of the laminates on the UAM parameters were essentially nonlinear. For their analysis and optimization of the UAM parameters, the direct propagation neural networks with the minimal architecture were utilized. Under the ultra-small sample conditions, the use of a priori knowledge enabled us to predict the results rather accurately. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fracture and Failure of Polymers)
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32 pages, 15553 KiB  
Article
Mechanical Characterization of Dicyclopentadiene and Glass-Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Subjected to Low to High Strain Rate
by Rogério F. F. Lopes, Daniela Azevedo, Gonçalo P. Cipriano, Tiago M. R. M. Domingues and Pedro M. G. P. Moreira
Polymers 2025, 17(6), 715; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym17060715 - 7 Mar 2025
Viewed by 517
Abstract
This work provides a detailed description of the procedures employed to characterize the mechanical behaviour of two materials present in a coach’s exterior panels, including glass-fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) and neat DCPD (dicyclopentadiene)-based polymers. Tensile tests were conducted at quasi-static, intermediate [1 s−1 [...] Read more.
This work provides a detailed description of the procedures employed to characterize the mechanical behaviour of two materials present in a coach’s exterior panels, including glass-fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) and neat DCPD (dicyclopentadiene)-based polymers. Tensile tests were conducted at quasi-static, intermediate [1 s−1, 10 s−1], and high strain rates [150 s−1, 250 s−1] to obtain a comprehensive understanding of their behaviour. The results indicate positive and significant dependence on the strain rate. Additionally, GFRP demonstrates superior energy absorption capacity for higher strain rates, unlike DCPD, which exhibits a higher energy absorption capacity for QS tests. In the case of DCPD, raising the strain rate to 10 s−1 the maximum stress was not affected but decreased the elongation at fracture. At higher strain rates, there was an increase in maximum stress alongside greater elongation. DCPD maintained consistent stiffness across all rates ranging between 2087 MPa and 2389 MPa, and the tests disclosed a failure mode characterized by numerous surface-transverse fissures. Regarding GFRP, a more pronounced variation in stiffness is observed, decreasing from 11,005 MPa to 4532 MPa at 133 s−1, recovering to 7288 MPa at 252 s−1. In addition, the maximum stress and failure elongation tends to increase with the strain rate increase. The detailed analysis of these results provides valuable insights into the mechanical behaviour of these materials under different loading conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fracture and Failure of Polymers)
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