A unified mechanical based approach to fracture properties estimates of rubbers subjected to aging

Abstract

In this work, the influence of aging on the mechanical properties at break of rubber materials are examined. When subjected to physical-chemical aging, the structure of the rubber network is deeply modified through two main mechanisms: crosslinking and chain scission. These aging mechanisms act both on the mechanical behaviour and on the fracture properties of the rubber materials. The goal of this work is to propose a predictive mechanical tool able to give estimates of these mechanical properties. To address this issue, an hyperelastic constitutive model based upon the energy limiter approach, was coupled with physical-chemical parameters in order to capture the whole mechanical behaviour of the damaged materials beyond the fracture. That allows fracture stress and strain estimates. A wide set of materials and experimental data extracted from the literature or obtained in our team were selected based upon the aging mechanism they can exhibit. We found that the elastically active chains concentrations and the swelling rate can be used as relevant indicators of damage either for crosslinking or chain scission process. These parameters are then introduced as damage parameters in the mechanical modelling. The proposed approach leads to very satisfactory predictions, either to capture the whole mechanical behaviour in uniaxial tension or in terms of stress and strain at break estimates.