Fatigue properties of acrylic denture base resins.

Observations were made of fractured surfaces caused by flexural and tensile fatigue tests made in polymethyl methacrylate denture base resins (PMMA). In addition, the changes in dynamic viscoelastic and tensile properties of the materials along with fatigue propagation were investigated. In the tensile and flexural fatigue tests, both the fractured surfaces, which had striations on their surfaces and cracks near the fractured section, closely resembled each other in appearance. On the other hand, all of the tensile properties, such as elastic modulus, toughness and tensile strength, decreased with the increase of the number of stress cycles in the fatigue test. The storage modulus (E') of the material decreased gradually along with fatigue propagation over the whole range of temperatures tested. The loss modulus (E") and mechanical loss tangent (tan delta) increased slightly. The fatigue limit of four commercial denture base resins varied widely from one product to another.