WAXS/SAXS study of plastic deformation instabilities and lamellae fragmentation in polyethylene

The influence of the topology of the amorphous phase on deformation instabilities, leading to kinking and to fragmentation of lamellae is discussed. Samples of polyethylene of diverse structure were deformed in the plane-strain compression. The accompanying structural changes were analyzed using DSC, WAXS and SAXS. Several deformation instabilities occur at various true strains. At e = 0.3–0.4 lamellae oriented specifically along the loading...