Investigator: Ing. Pavel Hutař, Ph.D.
Number of Project: 106/09/0279
Agency: Czech Science Foundation
Duration: 01. 01. 2009 - 31. 12. 2011

The advanced polymer structures contain material interfaces, which can influence its final lifetime. Important topic of the research is than study changes of the crack behaviour due to material non-homogeneity. Therefore, general goal of the project liesin the development and suggestion of reliable techniques for estimation of a residual life time of multilayer polymeric structures. Slow crack growth, which can be described by the corresponding fracture mechanics parameters, plays an important part in this estimation. In the case of viscoelastic polymer materials the current methodology will be developed. The correlation between the experimental data and results of relevant numerical model will be presented. The results enable to estimate materials composition with respect to the optimal mechanical properties of multilayer structure.

Šestáková , L., Náhlík, L., Hutař, P., Knésl, Z. Crack propagation in the vicinity of the interface in layered materials, Applied and Computational Mechanics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 195-204, 2009

Hutař, P., Náhlík, L., Šestáková, L., Ševčík, M., Knésl, Z., Nezbedová, E. A fracture mechanics assessment of surface cracks existing in protective layers of multi-layer composite pipes, Composite Structures 92, 1120-1125, 2010.

Hutař P., Šestáková L., Knésl Z., Nezbedová E., Náhlík L., Special fracture mechanics specimens for multilayer plastic pipes testing, Polymer Testing, Vol.28, pp.785–792, 2009