Nondestructive testing of defects in adhesive joints

Conclusions
In anaerobic condition, no significant changes were observed in terms of thermal stability of such
blend systems. However, in oxygen atmosphere, the TGA plots reflected a dramatic change. The
initial part of degradation was probably controlled by oxygen diffusion, decomposition of LDPE
and acetic acid elimination from EVA. The next stage of degradation was found to be a strong
function of mutual interactions between EVA and nano-silica. Si-69 provided a significant
thermal stabilization. On the whole, it was observed that the thermal stability of TPE blends was a
strong function of morphology which in turn was decided by the sequence of addition of
ingredients during blend preparation, amount of silica nano-fillers addition and presence of
coupling agent. The mutual interaction of the polymer matrices with nano-silica fillers strongly
influenced the kinetic parameters.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi for
funding the project (SR/FTP/ETA-15/2005 Dated 02.11.2005). One of the authors is highly
grateful to CSIR, New Delhi for funding her fellowship to carry out this work. Authors are
grateful to Mr. Sayed Mushtaq, RTC, IIT Kharagpur for helping with RPA measurements.
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