Dynamic Mechanical Analysis of Low-Density Polyethylene with Glass Beads

Glass bead-filled low-density polyethylene (LDPE) composites have been analyzed employing dynamic mechanical analysis. The storage moduli of the composites decrease rapidly in a temperature range from-150 to-1 00I C and from-50 to 00C, and then decrease gently with a rise of temperatures. The mechanical damping increases with a rise of temperatures and decreases with increasing the weight fraction (4)) of glass beads when 4) is greater than 1 0%. The glass transition temperature varies with 4) and is the lowest at 4) = 10%. Under the same test conditions, the storage modulus of the LDPE filled with glass beads pretreated with a silane coupling agent is greater than that of the unpretreated system but is contrary to mechanical damping. The relative storage modulus calculated by using an equation presented in previous work was close to that measured from the composites under the test conditions.