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This comparative study investigates the mechanical properties of polycarbonate in manufacturing conditions of different cooling speed. All experiments were conducted using 0.8 mm thick specimens made of commercial Polycarbonate granule (3 mm), according to the ASTM standard. The test results illustrate that polycarbonate specimens manufactured in fast-cooling (FC) condition exhibit at least five times higher resilience in ambient temperature than those of slow-cooling (SC) condition. However, the resilience of FC polycarbonate specimen quickly deteriorates, as the test temperature reduces to negative 40 degrees C. On the other hand, SC specimens barely changed their tensile properties. Thus, the test reveals that tensile properties of polycarbonate are significantly affected by the cooling speed in the manufacturing stage, and exposed temperature conditions. In this manuscript, the correlations between toughness and yield strength of polycarbonate specimen are summarized and discussed in terms of the cooling conditions and environmental temperature.

This paper investigates the effect of mechanical pre-strain on interfacial friction damping in nanotube polymer composites. Oxidized single-walled carbon nanotubes were dispersed in a polycarbonate matrix using a solution mixing technique. To characterize the damping response, the material storage and loss modulus was measured by application of dynamic (sinusoidal) load to the nanocomposite in the uniaxial direction. A static pre-strain (in 0.35-0.85% range) was then superimposed on the dynamic strain to quantify its effect on the material response. The results indicate that application of pre-strain facilitates the activation of interfacial slip at the nanotube-polymer interfaces at relatively low dynamic strain amplitudes. This is because pre-strain raises the interfacial shear stress for the nanotube inclusions allowing the critical stress for tube-matrix interfacial slip to be reached at lower strain amplitudes. In this way pre-strain significantly improves the effectiveness of the nanotube-matrix sliding energy dissipation mechanism for damping enhancement in composite structures.