Instantaneous elastic recovery of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) filament

Abstract

Abstract The instantaneous elastic recoveries of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT), PET, and PBT filaments were comparatively analyzed by a tensile testing machine. The conditions of the measurement were studied and the mechanism of instantaneous elastic recovery of these three aromatic polyester filaments is discussed. The instantaneous elastic recovery of PTT filaments was significantly higher than those of PBT and PET filaments. Moreover, PTT filaments had a high instantaneous elastic recovery even at a high elongation of 20%. The outstanding instantaneous elastic recovery of PTT filaments resulted from its helical conformation in crystal lattice, which responded immediately to the applied stress and deformed as though it was a coiled spring; we suggest it was a quasispring elastic recovery mechanism. When we measured the instantaneous elastic recovery of, PTT filaments with the tensile testing machine, it was appropriate to set up the crosshead speed at 500 mm/min with an elongation of 20% and a load of 0.5 cN/tex. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1967–1975, 2004