Abstract
The toughening mechanism of rubber modified plastics has been explained by the crack theory of Merz on the first stage. Newman has then proposed the local yielding mechanism of the matrix near rubber particles. More recently, the craze conception proposed by Bucknall et al. has been widely supported by experiments.
This paper describes the recent topics on fracture of ABS resins, mainly works done by Gaggar and Newmann. Gaggar studied the impact strength of prestrained tensile bars beyond the yield conditions. The craze initiation step is extremely important and the contribution of energy absorbed during the initiation step for the fracture is not very significant. Newmann investigated the fracture mechanism of ABS resins with notched specimens and concluded that the craze growth and the crack initiation at the crack tip are both geometry dependent, and the crack growth at maximum load is a function of loading process.
