5/5/2020 Heat Distortion Temperature

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POLYMER PHYSICS HEAT DISTORTION TEMPERATURE SUMMARY

RELATED TOPICS: HEAT DISTORT

The heat distortion temperature (HDT) - also known as the deflection temperature
Glass Transition Temperature under load (DTUL) or heat deflection temperature - is an important property of is the temperature

polymers. It gives an indication at what temperature materials start to "soften" when sample deflects by
Dynamic Mechanical Analysis
(DMA) exposed to a fixed load at elevated temperatures. The HDT is defined by ASTM D a fixed bending lo

648 as the temperarture at which a sample bar of standard dimensions (127x 13 x point test beam ar
Thermomechanical Analysis
(TMA) 12 mm) deflects by 0.25 mm (0.01 in) under a centered standard flexural load of 455
kPa (66 psi) or 1.82 MPa (264 psi). A schematic testing arrangement is shown in the
figure below; the sample is loaded to the specified bending stress in a three-point The HDT is a goo

bend test beam arrangement which is immersed in an oil. The oil bath is then heated the "stiffness" of a
HDT TESTER at a rate of 2 ∓ 0.2 K/min until the specimen reaches the defined deflection.1 The
as the temperatur

Qualtech heat-transfer medium is typically a mineral oil or silicone oil which does not affect the
mechanical properties of the specimen.
Zwick HDT of filled and u
can vary a lot, dep
Qualitest
HDT TEST APPARATUS filler / fiber conten
International Equipments

Instron
The HDT is often
sheets of commer
resins.
B A C K TO INDE X

H D T TABLE

The heat deflection temperature of amorphous materials is related to the glass

transition temperature (amorphous materials) or melting temperature (crystalline
materials). The HDT, is a useful indicator of the temperature limit above which the
material cannot be used for structural applications. It is often reported on the TDS of
commercial grades of plastics. However, HDT and Tg (or Tm) cannot be used

Interchangeable. The Tg describes the temperature at which vitrification or

glassification begins, i.e when "freezing" of the movements of chain segments
(kinetic units) takes place, whereas the HDT is a macroscopic measure of the
"stiffness" of a material when the temperature increases. For unfilled systems, the
two properties are often closely related (see Figure below). However, fillers, and
reinforcements will greatly change the HDT since reinforcements make the material
stiffer whereas the Tg is not noticeably affected by these ingredients since it

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5/5/2020 Heat Distortion Temperature

describes the softening of the polymeric portion. Infact, the HDT of filled and unfilled
plastics can vary a lot, depending on the filler / fiber content and type. Both
properties are equally affected by plasticizers.

HDT VERSUS Tg

For structural applications the HDT is often a better measure for the temperature
application limit than the Tg (or Tm). Sometimes, manufacturers and suppliers of

polymeric materials confuse these two properties. However, these properties are not
interchangeable.

1The HDT (ASTM D 648) and the Vicat softening temperature (ASTM D 1525) are often integrated in

one instrument (Zwick-Roll).

Revised November 28, 2019

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