ENERGY-DISSIPATION AND THE FRACTURE OF RUBBER VULCANIZATES

This paper presents a brief review of the energy balance approach for studying the fracture of elastomers. The importance of energy dissipation is emphasized and the application of fracture mechanics to three common test geometries is discussed. Any of the three geometries (among others) that have been discussed, can be used to determine fracture energies of elastomers. As long as comparisons are made at similar temperatures and crack propagation rates, values of G for the various geometries are approximately similar. The agreement is better when the elastomer is rather highly crosslinked and more elastic compared to cases in which the vulcanizate is highly dissipative.