Dear all,
I'm hoping to receive some feedback and tips so that I can better understand the behaviour of a material I am working with:
The material is a blend of paraffin and microcrystalline mixed with a solid filler. Each time it is heated and cooled (RT → 60 °C → RT) its hardness increases. In this case, hardness is measured by the amount of force (N) required to drive a probe into the material at room temperature.
My hypothesis is that the tempering process causes changes to the crystalline structure of the material. Perhaps with each tempering cycle, the crystalline structure becomes increasingly well ordered?
I have access to a DSC, which could provide one way of investigating the material. Does anyone have any thoughts on the underlying cause of this, or what kind of experiments I could conduct identify the cause?
Many thanks, Arthur
Dear Arthur Prior, annealing is a thermal treatment process. The mechanical properties increase because of the following point :
- crystallinity degree and perfection are enhanced.
- defects are reduced because extra time and energy allow the material to take more tight and organized arrengements, this means defects (which act as stress concentration) are reduced.
My Regards
Thanks for the feedback so far, can anyone with knowledge of DSC comment on how such an increase in the degree of crystallinity could be measured? For example, if I prepared a number of samples that had been that heated and cooled (RT → 60 °C → RT) a different number of times, or for different durations, what kind of experimental conditions could be created to observe such differences? What would be the expected results?
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