Chemical degradative stress cracking of poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), after certain thermal and mechanical histories, exhibits stress cracking when exposed to 40% aqueous methylamine. This reagent has also been used for selective degradation of PET films. Stress cracking is shown to occur during degradation only when a specimen supports an internal or externally applied stress, above a critical level. The cracking density in a filament is shown by the present work to increase as the draw ratio is increased or when the fiber is highly annealed. This increased cracking is associated with an increase in the magnitude of the internal residual stress resulting from molecular orientation developed during these processes. Because of this, crack density and fiber birefringence were found to correlate well. In addition, the geometry of the stress‐cracking pattern along a filament is affected by internal residual stress since the propagation of spiral and helical cracks results from the effect of a biaxial stress field remaining at the filament surface after processing.