Rubber fracture

Flex fatigue is a term that is commonly used in the testing of elastomers. Flex fatigue is the result of a rubber fracturing after being subjected to fluctuating stresses. 

Epoxy with liquid rubber, fracture test [19] ... 

Demonstrations (a) Balloons and safety pin (see Chapter 13, p. 121). Afterwards, put fractured edges of balloon rubber on overhead to show that wavy fracture path closely parallels that seen when metals have undergone fast fracture, (b) for Sellotape (see Chapter 13, p. 122). 

When a craze occurs around a rubber droplet the droplet is stressed not only in a direction parallel to the applied stress but also in the plane of the craze perpendicular to the applied stress (see Figure 3.9). Such a triaxial stress leading to dilation of the particle would be resisted by the high bulk modulus of the rubber, which would thus become load bearing. The fracture initiation stress of a polyblend should not therefore be substantially different from that of a glass. 

It has been demonstrated that with SBR polystyrene blends the rubber should exist in discrete droplets, less than 50 p.m in diameter where a good finish is required, within the polystyrene matrix. It is believed that in such a form the rubber can reduce crack propagation and hence fracture in various ways. The most favoured current explanations of this were discussed in Chapter 3. Suffice it to say here that the following features appear necessary for a suitable blend ... 

The aim of this chapter is to describe the micro-mechanical processes that occur close to an interface during adhesive or cohesive failure of polymers. Emphasis will be placed on both the nature of the processes that occur and the micromechanical models that have been proposed to describe these processes. The main concern will be processes that occur at size scales ranging from nanometres (molecular dimensions) to a few micrometres. Failure is most commonly controlled by mechanical process that occur within this size range as it is these small scale processes that apply stress on the chain and cause the chain scission or pull-out that is often the basic process of fracture. The situation for elastomeric adhesives on substrates such as skin, glassy polymers or steel is different and will not be considered here but is described in a chapter on tack . Multiphase materials, such as rubber-toughened or semi-crystalline polymers, will not be considered much here as they show a whole range of different micro-mechanical processes initiated by the modulus mismatch between the phases. 

The stored strain energy can also be determined for the general case of multiaxial stresses [1] and lattices of varying crystal structure and anisotropy. The latter could be important at interfaces where mode mixing can occur, or for fracture of rubber, where f/ is a function of the three stretch rations 1], A2 and A3, for example, via the Mooney-Rivlin equation, or suitable finite deformation strain energy functional. 

Marshall, G.P. Design for toughness in polymers - Fracture Mechanics, Plastics and Rubber Proc. and Appl. 2(1982) p 169-182. 

Heterogeneous compatible blends of preformed elastomers and brittle plastics are also an important route for the development of blends of enhanced performance with respect to crack or impact resistance. Polycarbonate blends with preformed rubber particles of different sizes have been used to provide an insight into the impact properties and the fracture modes of these toughened materials. Izod impact strength of the blends having 5-7.5 wt% of rubber particles exhibits best overall product performance over a wide range temperature (RT to -40°C) [151-154]. 

When rubbers eventually fracture, they do so by tearing. Fracture surface energies, using the Griffith equation, have been found to be of the order of 10 J m , whereas the true surface energies are only 0.1-1.0 J Hence, more energy is involved in fracture than is required to form new surfaces, and, as with other polymers, this extra energy is assumed to be used up in viscoelastic and flow processes that occur between the molecules immediately before the rubber breaks. 

We conclude that high internal stresses are generated by simple shear of a long incompressible rectangular rubber block, if the end surfaces are stress-free. These internal stresses are due to restraints at the bonded plates. One consequence is that a high hydrostatic tension may be set up in the interior of the sheared block. For example, at an imposed shear strain of 3, the negative pressure in the interior is predicted to be about three times the shear modulus p. This is sufficiently high to cause internal fracture in a soft rubbery solid [5]. 

Fracture energies have been determined for bond failure at either end of the bond line for a sheared rubber block, but the results are inconclusive—it is not clear where bond failure will occur, or at what load, even when the fracture properties of the rubber are known. Thus, the initiation of cracks, especially at interfaces and comers, needs further study. 

A.H. Muhr, A.G. Thomas, and J.K. Varkey, A fracture mechanics study of natural rubber-to-metal bond failure, J. Adhesion Set TechnoL, 10, 593-616, 1996. 

I.H. Gregory and A.H. Muhr, Stiffness and fracture analysis of bonded rubber blocks in simple shear, in Finite Element Analysis of Elastomers, ed. by D. Boast and V.A. Coveny, Professional Engineering Publications, Bury St. Edmunds, United Kingdom, 1999, pp. 265-274. 

In TPE, the hard domains can act both as filler and intermolecular tie points thus, the toughness results from the inhibition of catastrophic failure from slow crack growth. Hard domains are effective fillers above a volume fraction of 0.2 and a size <100 nm [200]. The fracture energy of TPE is characteristic of the materials and independent of the test methods as observed for rubbers. It is, however, not a single-valued property and depends on the rate of tearing and test temperature [201]. The stress-strain properties of most TPEs have been described by the empirical Mooney-Rivlin equation... 

FIGURE 11.9 Tensile fractured samples show the texture of XNBR vulcanizates (a) 75 25 EPDM/XNBR (b) 75 25 EPDM/XNBR (c) 50 50 EPDM/XNBR (one stage) (d) 50 50 EPDM/XNBR (two stage) (e) 25 75 EPDM/XNBR (one stage) (f) 25 75 EPDM/XNBR (two stage). (From Naskar, M., Debnath, S.C., and Basu, D.K. Rubber Chem. TechnoL, 75, 309, 2002.)... 

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