Study of the Effects of Nuclear Radiation on the Mechanical Properties of Acetal Resins Delrin and Celcon

摘要

Two commercial acetal resins (Delrin and Celcon) were exposed to reactor radiation at room temperature in air to five levels of absorbed dose. The tensile strength of both resins was found to decrease rapidly with increasing dose: 50% of the original value is reached at about 0.3 gigaergs/ gm(C) for Delrin and at about 0.75 gigaergs/gm(C) for Celcon. At about 1 gigaerg/gm(C), both materials had virtually lost their mechanical usefulness. The Shore-D hardness of the two resins was found to decrease exponentially with dose. On the basis of weight-loss measurements, the G-values for formaldehyde formation were conservatively estimated to be 15.4 and 8.9 for Delrin and Celcon, respectively. Depolymerization appears to be the predominant mode of degradation. (Author)