Some aspects of chemistry and physics of plastic flow

Abstract

The paper deals with the behaviour and transformations of polymeric materials under the simultaneous action of high pressure (up to tens of kbar) and shear deformation. The physical mechanism of pulverization under the above-mentioned condictions has been established. The point is that, under shear deformation, the elastic energy accumulated in the polymer is spent on the endothermal process of a new surface formation. It has been shown that under these conditions “co-efficients” of diffusion or mass transfer increase by several orders of magnitude. Machines have been designed which allow to pulverize different synthetical and raw materials (thermo-plastics and reactoplastics, rubbers, vulcanized rubbers, wood, cellulose-containing materials, etc.) with considerably smaller energy consumptions per unit weight of superfine powder compared with traditional methods. © 1985 IUPAC