10.1002/spepro.

003571
The creep behavior of linear
low-density polyethylene
Yakov Unigovski, Arthur Bobovitch, Emmanuel Gutman, and
Dmytry Mogilansky
Research reveals that the creep strain of lms is higher at lower densi-
ties, specically between 0.902 to 0.930g/cm
3
.
The creep behavior of high-density polyethylenewith a density of
0.940.96g/cm
3
has been studied extensively,
13
while Crissman in-
vestigated in detail the long-term creep behavior of linear low-density
polyethylene (LLDPE)with a density of 0.933g/cm
3
at room tem-
perature, as a function of stress and processing parameters.
4, 5
Never-
theless, the effects of variable density, applied stress, morphology, and
processing parameters on the creep behavior of LLDPE lms charac-
terized by a broad range of densities have not yet been studied in depth.
Therefore, we investigated these processes for 40 and 80m-thick
LLDPE lms with densities of 0.902, 0.912, 0.920, and 0.930g/cm
3
(produced by blowing and casting processes) at both room tem-
perature and 70

C. We chose strain-to-failure parameterization as a

criterion for ductile-creep failure. This parameter is dened as the
maximum elongation characterized by necking of the entire sample. At
room temperature under a stress of 8MPa, strain to failure increases by
one order of magnitude (from 0.08 to 0.80% elongation) for a density
decrease from 0.930 to 0.902g/cm
3
. We found that the most signicant
decrease in total strain and creep compliance occurred with a density
increase to more than 0.912g/cm
3
, at both room temperature and 70

C
(see Figure 1).
Processing affects creep deformation much less signicantly than
density variations. The crystalline structure of cast lms is much more
deformed than that of their blown counterparts because of a higher
cooling rate in the casting process and a higher orientation in cast lm.
This is conrmed by a much broader peak of orthorhombic reection
(110) of cast compared to blown lms.
Our work suggested that under loading at room temperature, a frac-
tion of the orthorhombic phase in lms with densities of 0.902 and
0.912g/cm
3
transforms into the monocline phase. For the latter lm,
short-term (0.3h) loading leads to the appearance of a sizeable re-
ection (010) of the monocline phase near an angular orientation of
2 D 19:5

(see Figure 2). For longer test durations, the intensity of

the (010) peak decreases slightly and remains unchanged until 165h
Figure 1. (a) Total strain and (b) creep compliance for 10s, J(10), de-
pending on lm density and temperature. RT: Room temperature.
(see Figure 2). Two other monoclinic-phase reections signicantly
overlap with the second orthorhombic reection. (Monoclinic reec-
tion does not appear at 70

C because of the phase instability at elevated

temperatures.
610
) However, for the highest-density lm (0.930g/cm
3
),
creep load and test temperature do not affect the morphology of the or-
thorhombic phase.
Calorimetric spectra of polyethylene show that the crystallinity per-
centage and melting-peak temperature of blown lms increase from
29.7 to 39.7% and from 87.0 to 122

C, respectively, for a density

Continued on next page
10.1002/spepro.003571 Page 2/2
Figure 2. X-ray patterns for blown lm with a density of 0.912g/cm
3
before (reference) and after creep tests with durations of 0.3 and 165h.
increase from 0.902 to 0.930g/cm
3
. The crystallinity of blown lms
was slightly higher than that of cast lms of the same density. This can
be attributed to a lower cooling rate during the production of blown
lms in comparison with cast-lm processing.
In summary, the creep strain of lms is higher at lower densities,
specically between 0.902 and 0.930g/cm
3
. Secondary crystallization
of the monoclinic phase (strain-induced crystallization) was found in
lms with densities below 0.920g/cm
3
under applied stress at room
temperature. Cast lms have a less perfect crystalline structure than
blown lms. However, processing affects creep much less signicantly
than density variations. We continue our characterization of density-
dependent creep parameters.
Author Information
Yakov Unigovski, Emmanuel Gutman, and Dmytry Mogilansky
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Beer-Sheva, Israel
Yakov Unigovski obtained his MSc (1972) and PhD degrees (1978)
from Ural State Technical University (Russia). He was appointed a
research associate professor (senior scientist) at the Ukrainian National
Academy of Sciences in 1993, followed by his current appointment as
senior scientist in 1996.
Arthur Bobovitch
Syfan Saad (99) Ltd.
Beer-Sheva, Israel
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