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Effect of temperature on tensile properties of

HDPE pipe material
Article in Plastics Rubber and Composites June 2006
DOI: 10.1179/174328906X103178

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Effect of temperature on tensile properties of

HDPE pipe material
N. Merah*, F. Saghir, Z. Khan and A. Bazoune
The properties that make plastic of direct interest to designers and engineers are its good
strength to weight ratio, low manufacturing and installation costs and high durability. The strength
of polymers is known to be sensitive to temperature and this generally limits their use under
service temperatures lower than the glass transition temperature. The present work addresses the
effect of temperatures ranging from 210 to 70uC on the tensile properties of high density
polyethylene PE-100 pipe material. Tensile tests are performed on dog bone type ASTM standard
specimens. Yield stress and modulus of elasticity are found to decrease linearly with temperature.
The average yield strength decreased linearly from 32 to 9 MPa when the temperature is
increased from 210 to 70uC. The modulus of elasticity varied in the same fashion as the yield
strength. The yield strain, however, showed a slight increase in this temperature range. Ductile
fracture is observed to be the controlling failure mechanism at all the temperatures of interest. The
deformation at room and high temperatures is accompanied by considerable necking. The
temperature effect on the tensile properties of PE-100 pipe material is compared with that of
CPVC and PVC pipe materials, used in comparable applications. In general, a similar effect was
observed on yield stress, modulus of elasticity and yield strain in all these materials.
Keywords: Polyethylene, HDPE, CPVC, Tensile properties, Temperature effect, Yield stress, Modulus of elasticity, Yield strain

Introduction
Polyethylene comes in three different general grades: low
density polyethylene (LDPE), medium density polyethylene (MDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE).
The increase in density results in the variation of
material properties. In general, the yield strength sys,
the modulus of elasticity E and the melting temperature
Tm increase with density while the elongation %El and
toughness decrease. Medium density polyethylene and
more and more higher density polyethylene are being
extensively used for gas, water, sewage and wastewater
distribution systems.
The mechanical properties of high density polyethylene like all polymers are very sensitive to service
temperature. In general, all polymers at temperatures
significantly below their glass transition temperatures Tg
undergo brittle fracture. In the region above the brittle
fracture regime, but below Tg, polymers usually yield
and undergo plastic deformation as the modulus of
elasticity decreases.
Hitt and Gilbert1 have studied the tensile properties of
PVC at temperatures ranging from 23 to 180uC. They
found that stress at break decreased steadily with
increasing temperature, whereas elongation at break

Mechanical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum

and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia
*Corresponding author, email nesar@kfupm.edu.sa

2006 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 19 November 2005; accepted 30 June 2006
DOI 10.1179/174328906X103178

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revealed a maximum between 80 and 90uC and a

minimum between 130 and 170uC. Ye et al.2 have
reported effects of strain rate and temperature on
fracture behaviour of poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) (TPX)
polymer. The results showed that the fracture behaviour
of TPX polymer was highly dependent on cross-head
rate and temperature. Merah et al.3 have investigated
the effect of temperatures ranging from 210 to 70uC on
the mechanical properties of CPVC. They found that the
yield strength and elastic modulus decreased linearly
with temperature. Brittle fracture occurred at temperatures below room temperature while ductile fracture
occurred at room temperature and temperatures above.
Bronnikov et al.4 investigated the thermal and
mechanical properties of drawn polymers over a wide
temperature range. They used polyethylene tetraphthalte
(PET), nylon 6 and nylon 610 for analysis. They have
shown that the mechanical properties of drawn polymers
are directly related to the thermal expansion and have
used this approach to show the temperature dependence
of Youngs modulus and yield stress over a wide
temperature range. They reported that Youngs modulus
and yield stress decrease with increasing temperature.
According to Bond,5 the tensile strength of HDPE
pressure pipe material is shown to decrease from
21 MPa at 23uC to 10 MPa at 60uC. Other researchers6,7
have also found that the increase in temperature leads to
a drastic decrease in polymer strength and stiffness.
Therefore, owing to the dependence of mechanical
properties on a large variety of parameters and mainly

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Merah et al.

Effects of temperature on tensile properties of HDPE pipe materials

the temperature, it is difficult for the designer to select a

certain material without knowing all these parameters.
The mechanical properties such as yield strength and
elastic modulus are usually given as a range for plastics
and usually only at room temperature. Therefore, the
accurate determination of mechanical properties of
polymers with respect to environment and material
variables is very important.
The present paper addresses the temperature effects
on the mechanical properties of PE-100 pipe material.
The effect of temperature is investigated by performing
tensile tests at 210, 0, 23, 40, 50 and 70uC. This range
encompasses the temperatures at which this type of
pipes may be used in the different areas of the world.
Variations of the mechanical properties such as yield
stress, modulus of elasticity and yield strain with
temperature are studied. The effect of temperature on
the mechanical properties of HDPE is also compared
with that of CPVC and PVC materials used in piping
systems for similar applications.

Experimental procedure
The specimens for tensile testing were prepared from
commercially available 4 inch (100 mm) Class V PE-100
pressure pipes manufactured by extrusion by a local
company in Saudi Arabia (typical compound density
960 kg m23, typical tensile stress at yield 23 MPa).
Additives such as carbon (.2%) were also added to
improve the physical and mechanical properties of the
pipes. Rings were cut from the pipe section and slit into
two halves. After heating for y60 min at 130uC in an
electric oven, the rings were straightened in a specially
designed mould, following the procedure described by
Irfan.8 Temperature setting and exposure time were
carefully monitored to obtain the same heating history
for all the specimens. During flattening, the pressure was
carefully applied to the material to avoid compressing
the plate after flattening and to conserve the original
thickness. The specimens for tensile tests were machined
from the straightened plates according to the ASTM
D638 Standard method of test for tensile properties of
plastics.9 Tensile loading was performed in the direction
perpendicular to the extrusion direction to obtain the
material resistance to hoop stress created by internal
pressure.
An Instron 8501 material testing frame was used for
testing (load capacity 100 kN). The machine is
equipped with a hydraulically actuated self-aligning
gripping system. To ensure the vertical alignment of
the specimen, specially machined inserts were used
during the tests. The deformation was measured by an
Instron clip-on extensometer with a gauge length of
200 mm. Environmental chambers with an accuracy of
1uC were used for tests in non-ambient conditions.
Two to three tests were performed at each of the
temperatures 210, 0, 23, 40, 50 and 70uC and at a strain
rate of 661024 s21. The results obtained from these
tests are presented and discussed in the following
sections.

Results and discussion

Temperature effects on stressstrain curves
Loadelongation curves were obtained using a PC
interfaced with the testing frame. Representative

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1 Loadelongation curves for HDPE at different temperatures

loadelongation curves are illustrated in Fig. 1. It can

be seen that the stiffness of the material as well as the
load bearing capacity decreased with increasing test
temperature.
The results in terms of yield stress and modulus of
elasticity, along with their average values, in different
test conditions are provided in Table 1. The yield
strength is defined here as the true stress at the
maximum load and the modulus of elasticity is obtained
from the initial linear portion of the stressstrain
(elongation) curve. It can be seen that except for tests
at 70uC, the scatter in the values of yield strength and
modulus of elasticity is minimal. The average value of
the yield strength obtained at 23uC is very close to the
typical value reported by the pipe manufacturer. This is
an indication that the process of specimen preparation
described above did not result in altering the mechanical
properties of the pipe material.
The typical engineering stresselongation curves
developed from the loadelongation results at each
Table 1 Results of monotonic tests performed on HDPE
specimens
Serial no.
210uC
1
2
Average
0uC
3
4
5
Average
23uC
6
7
Average
40uC
8
9
Average
50uC
8
9
Average
70uC
10
11
12
Average

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Yield strength,
MPa

Modulus of
elasticity, MPa

32.61
31.79
32.20

1032
1038.5
1035.25

29.49
30.00
30.45
30.00

923.25
925.35

23.85
23.27
23.56

670.30
665.10
667.70

16.40
15.69
16.05

407.50
392.45
399.00

14.21
14.55
14.38

291.95
287.35
289.65

9.09
7.45
10.44
8.99

223.10
201.06
237.15
220.65

924.30

Merah et al.

2 Representative stress%elongation curves for HDPE at

different temperatures

Effects of temperature on tensile properties of HDPE pipe materials

4 Effects of temperature on modulus of elasticity

Yield stress and modulus of elasticity

temperature are illustrated in Fig. 2. Several features of
these curves are worth noting: increasing the temperature produces a decrease in elastic modulus, a reduction
in tensile strength and an enhancement of ductility. For
this set of results, the yield strength drops from y32 to
7.5 MPa as the temperature is increased from 210 to
70uC. It is evident in Fig. 2 that ductile fracture occurs
with a definite yield point characterised by a maximum
in the stressstrain curve. A considerable amount of
plastic deformation, which is usually associated with the
crazing phenomenon, can also be evidently observed.
The pipe material undergoes plastic deformation,
illustrated in the hump, at all the temperatures. The
deformation after the yield point at 210 and 0uC is
mainly by shear yielding while at 23uC and above,
deformation is by shear yielding and cold drawing. In
the cases of 0 to 70uC, after a sufficient amount of strain,
the slope of the stressstrain curve begins to increase
after reaching a minimum stress value. This is produced
by the alignment of HDPE chains in the strain direction
resulting in material strain hardening. The slope of the
curve continues on increasing until the plastically
deformed sample eventually breaks. It should be noted
here that at 23uC and higher temperatures, the specimens did not break and the test was interrupted after a
considerable amount of elongation was produced,
usually .200%. The effect of temperature on the main
tensile properties such as yield strength, yield strain and
elastic modulus is discussed in detail in the following
sections.

3 Effect of temperature on yield stress

The average values of yield strength sys are plotted

against absolute temperature T in Fig. 3. It can be seen
that in the range 263 to 343 K (210 to 70uC), the yield
strength varies linearly with temperature. The slope of
the regression line in this temperature range has a value
of 20.305, with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.99.
The linear dependence of yield stress on temperature for
HDPE can be expressed as
sys ~112:85
0:305T

263 KT343 K

This behaviour falls in line with Eyrings theory of

viscosity expressed in its simplest form as
 
DH R
e
sys ~
z ln
T
(2)
V
V
Ae
where R is the universal gas constant, V is the activation
volume also known as the Eyring flow volume, e is the
strain rate, DH is the change in enthalpy and Ae is a
material constant. For tests conducted at constant strain
rates, the above model predicts a linear relationship
between yield strength and temperature. Equation (1)
can be used to develop temperature de-rating factors for
the present HDPE material at any service temperature
within the specified range.
The values of sys reported in Ref. 5 for HDPE, Ref. 7
for PVC and Ref. 3 for CPVC pipefitting material are
also shown in Fig. 3 for comparison purposes. As
expected, both PVC and CPVC have higher strength
than HDPE at all temperatures. The temperature
sensitivity of the strengths of PVC and CPVC materials
is more than that of HDPE; the yield strength sys for
PVC and CPVC decreases at a faster rate than that for
HDPE. The slope of the regression line for CPVC is
y1.5 times that of HDPE. The variation of temperature
is shown to have an even higher effect on the yield
strength of PVC where the slope of the regression line
has a value of more than twice that for HDPE.
The variation of modulus of elasticity E as a function
of absolute temperature for HDPE is shown in Fig. 4. It
can be observed that in the present temperature range, E
also decreases linearly with increasing temperature,
much similar to what was observed with sys. The linear
dependence obtained in the present study is similar to
that reported by Povolo et al.7 for PVC and Merah
et al.3 for CPVC. The variation of E with absolute
temperature T for HDPE pipe material can be expressed

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Effects of temperature on tensile properties of HDPE pipe materials

5 Relationship between t and G for HDPE

as

6 Variation of yield strain with temperature for HDPE

E(T)~3912:8{11T

(3)

A comparison of the variation of E for HDPE with that

for CPVC (Ref. 3) and PVC (Ref. 7) with absolute
temperature is also shown in Fig. 4. An analysis of these
curves reveals that the regression lines for HDPE and
CPVC seem to be parallel to each other, which leads to
the conclusion that the variation of temperature has a
similar effect on the stiffness of these two materials. The
stiffness of PVC, however, decreases at a faster rate than
that of HDPE and CPVC.

Relationship between elastic modulus and yield

strength
Elastic modulus and yield strength are linearly related to
each other. Hence, any variable that affects elastic
modulus will also affect the yield strength. Argon and
Bessonov10 derived the analytical relationships between
elastic modulus and yield strength over a wide temperature range. These theories show excellent agreement with
Argons experimental results but their analytical form is
too complex to be applied to practical situations.
Kitagawa11 has expanded and generalised Argons
theory to arrive at a relationship between shear stress t
and shear modulus G which can be represented by a
power law relationship of the form


To t
To G n
~
(4)
Tto
TGo
where To is the reference temperature, the values to and
Go are of shear yield stress and shear modulus at some
To (conveniently taken as the ambient temperature), and
n is a temperature independent exponent.
The tensile modulus and yield strength are converted
into the corresponding shear modulus and shear yield
strength for using Kitagawas relationship. This can be
performed using the following equations of solid
mechanics
G(T)~

E(T)
21zn

(5)

sys (T)
(6)
31=2
where n is the Poissons ratio.
Kitagawa in agreement with Argon showed that a
relationship of the form of equation (4) held over a wide
range of temperatures for most polymers. He also found
that the exponent n had a unique value of 1.63 for all
amorphous polymers and a value between 0.80 and 0.90
t(T)~

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for semicrystalline polymers. Merah et al.3 have also

used Kitagawas model in their study of CPVC and
reported the value of exponent n equal to 1.69. Figure 5
is a loglog plot according to equation (4) for the values
of t and G obtained for HDPE tested over the
temperature range of 210 to 70uC. The Poissons ratio
was assumed constant, equal to 0.46 (Ref. 12), over the
temperature range of interest. The line drawn on the
graph has a slope of 0.659 and all the points fall very
close to this line with a coefficient of regression of 0.975.
The value of slope is less than that reported for
semicrystalline polymers because of the presence of
additives in the HDPE pipe material chosen for testing.

Yield strain
Figure 6 shows the variation of yield strain with
temperature. The yield strain (denoted by ey) is defined
as the ratio of yield stress to modulus of elasticity, i.e.
ey5sys/E. The yield strain remains fairly constant for the
temperature range studied; the regression line shown in
the graph has a slope of 261024. Similar results were
obtained by Povolo et al.7 and Merah et al.3 for PVC
and CPVC respectively.

Conclusions
The effect of temperature on the mechanical properties
of high density polyethylene PE-100 pipe material was
studied by performing a number of tensile tests at six
different temperatures (210, 0, 23, 40, 50 and 70uC).
The following conclusions are obtained from the
analysis of tensile test results.
1. The yield stress and elastic modulus decrease
linearly with temperature.
2. Ductile fracture occurred at all the temperatures.
3. The temperature dependence of HDPE strength is
lower than that of PVC and CPVC; the yield strength
for HDPE decreases at a slower rate than that for PVC
and CPVC.
4. The variation of temperature has a similar effect on
the stiffness of HDPE and CPVC.
5. Shear stress and shear modulus are related by a
Kitagawa power law with an exponent of 0.66.
6. Variation of temperature has a limited effect on the
yield strain of HDPE.

Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the support of the King Fahd
University of Petroleum and Minerals.

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References

<

1. D. J. Hitt and M. Gilbert: Mater. Sci. Technol., 1992, 8, 739744.

2. L. Ye, C.-T. Yuan and Y.-W. Mai: Polym. Compos., 1998, 19, (6),
830836.
3. N. Merah, M. Irfan-ul-Haq and Z. Khan: J. Mater. Process.
Technol., 2003, 142, (1), 247255.
4. S. V. Bronnikov, V. I. Vettegren and S. Ya Frenkel: Polym. Eng.
Sci., 1992, 3, (17), 12041208.
5. R. W. Bonds: Ductile iron pipe versus HDPE pipe, DIPRA, 2000.
6. M. Che, W. Grellmann and S. Seidler: J. Polym. Sci., 1997, 64, (6),
10791090.

Effects of temperature on tensile properties of HDPE pipe materials

7. F. Povolo, G. Schwartz and E. B. Hermida: J. Polym. Sci., 1996,

34, 12571267.
8. M. Irfan-ul-Haq: Crack propagation in CPVC at different
temperatures, MSc thesis, King Fahd University of Petroleum
and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 2000.
9. Standard test method for tensile properties of plastics, ASTM
Designation D63894b, ASTM, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
10. A. S. Argon and M. I. Bessonov: Polym. Eng. Sci., 1997, 17, (3),
174182.
11. M. Kitagawa: J. Polym. Sci., Polym. Phys. Edn, 1977, 15, 1601
1611.
12. www.goodfellow.com

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Authors Queries
Journal: Plastics, Rubber and Composites
Paper: 2326
Title: Effect of temperature on tensile properties of HDPE pipe material
Dear Author
During the preparation of your manuscript for publication, the questions listed below have arisen. Please attend to
these matters and return this form with your proof. Many thanks for your assistance

Query
Reference

Query

Remarks

Author: the information (Ref. 5

for HDPE, Ref. 7 for PVC and
Ref. 3 for CPVC) described here
is inconsistent with that in the
key box of Fig. 3. Please check
if the change is ok.

Author: in Ref. 5, please provide

the location of the organisation.

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