3 credits
Spring 2026 Lecture Distance Learning Upper Division
Structure-property relationships developed for commodity and engineering resins. Focus on connecting bonding and polymer structure (i.e., molecular weight, tacticity, crystallinity as it regards spherulites) to mechanical (yield phenomena and fracture) and thermomechanical behavior (viscoelasticity). Thermal characterization techniques, including DSC, TGA, TMA, and DMTA. Flow of polymer melts related to common melt processing techniques (i.e., extrusion and injection molding). Offered in alternate years.
Learning Outcomes1Identify microstructural differences between thermoplastic, thermosetting, and elastomeric polymers and how these affect thermal and mechanical properties.
2Discuss the crystalline structures of thermoplastic polymers, including nucleation and growth of spherulitic structures and how molecular weight, tacticity, and cooling rate affect the morphology of the crystals.
3Discuss entropy elasticity as it relates to elastomeric behavior.
4Compare and contrast the yield and fracture behavior of polymers with metallic and ceramics materials.
5Explain viscoelasticity from a microstructural viewpoint, and its manifestations in polymeric mechanical behavior, including mathematical modeling of creep and stress relaxation behaviors of simple and complex systems.
6Interpret the results from common thermal characterization (TGA, DSC, DMA) techniques and relate them to polymer structure.
7Discuss polymer melt-processing techniques of extrusion and injection molding, and how polymer chain morphology affects processing.
Prerequisites
made by Purdue students.