Engineering Faculty
Document No. 18-04
TO: The Engineering
Faculty
FROM: The Faculty of the School of Materials
Engineering
DATE:
January 15, 2005
RE: New Dual-Level Course, MSE 525
The faculty of the School of Materials
Engineering have approved the following new
course. This action is now submitted to
the Engineering Faculty with a recommendation for approval.
MSE 525 Structure-Property Relationships of Engineering Polymers
Sem. 2. Class
3, Cr. 3. (Offered in Alternate Years)
Prerequisites: Senior or graduate
standing; junior by permission of instructor.
Description: Structure-property relationships developed
for commodity and engineering resins. Focus on connecting bonding and polymer
structure (i.e. molecular weight, tacticity, crystallinity as it regards
spherulites) to mechanical (yield phenomena and fracture) and thermomechanical
behavior (viscoelasticity). Thermal characterization techniques, including DSC,
TGA, TMA and DMTA. Flow of polymer melts related to common melt processing
techniques (i.e. extrusion and injection molding).
Reason: This class has now been offered two times, in Spring 2003 (28 students)
and Fall 2004 (19 students), with good enrollment. The purpose of this course
is to develop an understanding of how bonding and structure in a polymer affects
its properties, particularly those properties associated with their use in
structural applications. Because of
the emphasis on structural applications, commodity and engineering resins are
the primary focus in this course. These resins alone contribute to over 200
million tons of usage annually. The content of this course has been coordinated
with MSE 597Y (polymer synthesis course) and CHE 544 (polymer physics course).
________________________________
A.
H. King, Head
School
of Materials Engineering
MSE 525
Structure-Property
Relationships in Engineering Polymers
Instructor: R.W.
Trice, rtrice@purdue.edu MSEE 386B, 494-6405
Course Description: Structure-property
relationships developed for commodity and engineering resins. Focus on
connecting bonding and polymer structure (i.e. molecular weight, tacticity,
crystallinity as it regards spherulites) to mechanical (yield phenomena and
fracture) and thermomechanical behavior (viscoelasticity). Thermal characterization
techniques, including DSC, TGA, TMA and DMTA. Flow of polymer melts related to
common melt processing techniques (i.e. extrusion and injection molding).
Prerequisite: Senior
or graduate standing; junior by permission of instructor
Goals: Students should be
aware of the basic advantages and limitations of common commodity and engineering
polymers. Specifically, they should know how polymer bonding and structure
affects thermal, mechanical, and processing properties. Students should be capable
of making assessments of material suitability for an application.
Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, a student should be able to:
• Identify
microstructural differences between thermoplastic, thermosetting, and
elastomeric polymers and how these affect thermal and mechanical properties.
• Discuss the
crystalline structures of thermoplastic polymers, including nucleation and
growth of spherulitic structures and how molecular weight, tacticity, and
cooling rate affect the morphology of the crystals.
• Discuss entropy elasticity as it relates to
elastomeric behavior.
• Compare and
contrast the yield and fracture mechanisms of polymers with metallic and
ceramic materials.
• Explain
viscoelasticity from a microstructural
viewpoint, and its manifestations in polymeric mechanical behavior, including
mathematical modeling of creep and stress relaxation behaviors of simple and
complex systems (including the Zener
model).
• Use the WLF
equation and develop master curves for amorphous polymers, and perform
Boltzmann superposition calculations.
• Interpret the
results from common thermal characterization (DSC, TGA, TMA, and DMTA)
techniques and relate them to polymer structure.
• Discuss polymer flow as it relates to melt-processing
techniques (like extrusion and injection molding) and how polymer chain
morphology affects processing.
• Perform simple modeling calculations of the
cooling behavior of polymers from the melt.
Text: Principles of Polymer Engineering by N.G.
McCrum, C.P. Buckley, and C.B. Bucknall, 2nd Edition (Oxford
Press). This book will be supplemented
with other handouts.
Assessment: Three Exams
(80%), Homework (15%), Paper (5%)
Weekly syllabus:
Week 1: Introduction/Important
Engineering Polymers
Week 2: Role
of Molecular Weight and Bonding on Polymer Properties
Weeks 3-4: Structure
of Amorphous, Crystalline, and Elastomeric Polymers (Including Entropy
Elasticity)
Week 5-6: Thermal Characterization of Polymers
Week 7-10: Polymer Viscoelasticity
Week 11-13: Mechanical Properties of Polymers
Week 14-15: Melt Processing of Polymers (Including Injection Molding and
Extrusion)
