Brittleness and toughness of polymers and other materials

Materials are often characterized in terms of their toughness, though more than one definition of toughness exists. Likely the most widely recognized means of defining material toughness, denoted here as τ, is by the area under the stress strain curve from a tensile test. Another important feature describing the nature of materials is that property known as brittleness, which has for a long time been much less quantitatively understood. Using a...