Polyamides (PA) are a family of engineering thermoplastics used in a wide range of applications including automotive, building, construction, separation processes, textiles, and so forth. This is related to their good properties (mechanical and thermal) which can also be modified by additives, other polymers (blends and multilayers) and fillers (composites). But these complex systems (several components) make the final materials more difficult to recycle. In this review, basic statistics on the production rate of polyamides are presented and the different recycling methods are reported to compare their advantages and limitations with respect to economics and technical analyses. The discussion includes biological, chemical, mechanical, physical, and thermal treatments to reintroduce, as much as possible, the parts after their end‐of‐service. Finally, a general conclusion on the current state of PA recycling is presented with several openings for future developments to satisfy the concept of circular economy and general sustainability.
The mechanical properties of virgin/recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) blends over the complete concentration range was thoroughly investigated in this work. In particular, a focus was made on the long-term properties via mechanical fatigue. Two different mixing methods, namely powder mixing (dry blending) and extrusion mixing (melt blending), were used to determine the effect of processing conditions on the tensile and fatigue behavior of the blends after compression molding. It was found that both tensile (modulus, ultimate strength) and fatigue performances were improved with increasing vHDPE content. Based on the obtained data, a correlation between the blends composition and mechanical properties is reported. Moreover, it was observed that increasing the vHDPE content led to slower crack propagation rate, probably due to less defects (contamination) in the blends. Finally, a negligible difference in mechanical properties (fatigue resistance) between both mixing approaches was observed, but samples produced via powder mixing showed less viscous dissipation (heat generation) as the vHDPE content increased, leading to lower surface temperature rise which can be an advantage for specific applications.
The nonlinear mechanical behavior of viscoelastic materials is modeled based on the Schapery integral model containing internal variables. In this context, a new approach for the strain‐dependent material properties is introduced considering a one‐dimensional formulation with strain‐dependent nonlinear functions for an oscillatory load case. In addition to the viscoelastic storage and loss modulus, the higher order harmonic oscillations in the stress response are computed and compared to experimental data from Fourier transform rheology of Polyamide 6 (PA6). The comparison reveals a good agreement between the predictions of the nonlinear model and the experimental data for the higher harmonic intensity .