Physicomechanical Behavior of Rubberlike Materials

Abstract

During the past year, further progress was made in understanding both the molecular nature of the strain energy function of a homogeneous, nearly incompressible rubberlike material. The importance of non-affinity of deformation, chain stiffness, and volume exclusion in modifying the basic statistical model of Kuhn, Grün, James and Guth are discussed. A phenomenological theory for predicting the distribution of times- to-break arising in creep failure in terms of the growth of defects in rubber was proposed and showed good agreement with experimental data. Batches of thermoelastic rubber filled with glass beads are being prepared prior to evaluation in terms of sedimentation theory.