Mechanics, statistical entangled networks

From this rough outline of some examples of current problems in the physics of rubber elasticity, it is clear that it is important to have a well-founded statistical-mechanical theory of equilibrium properties of rubber-elastic networks. Consequently, first junction and entanglement topology are described and discussed. Then a section briefly reviews the theory of the phantom network. In the following two sections, theories of equilibrium properties of networks and a comparison of theoretical results with experimental data are presented. 

A different statistical-mechanical approach based on so called replica formalism was developed by Edwards and CO workers [29,30]. They studied the effect of topological entanglements between chains on the elastic free energy of the network and formulated the slip-link model. The elastic energy of constraints in the slip-link theory is... 

A statistical mechanical model of an elastomeric network is proposed which takes into account that a chain in the network tends to follow the deformation of the macroscopic sample, but is restrained from doing so by the entanglement structures formed during crosslinking. 

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