Experimental investigations of crack propagation in rubber under dif-ferent loading rates, temperatures and fracture modes

• In the present paper, the fracture behavior of carbon-black natural rubber material is experimentally studied. The cracked pure shear and the single edge notch specimens were used for investigating both pure mode I and mixed mode I and II fracture behavior, respectively. Further, different testing conditions were employed in the case of the cracked pure shear specimens. The specimens were subjected to three different loading rates and they were tested in two different temperatures. For studying the crack growth, a high speed camera at up to 7000 frames/s was used to follow the progress of the crack and later a post-processor was used to obtain the crack trajectory and velocity at different stages. The method introduced previously by the present author (Elmukashfi in report 580, Department of Solid Mechanics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), 2015) was used to obtain the critical tearing energy using the cracked pure shear specimens. Hence, the uncracked pure shear specimens were subjected to cyclic loading history in order to obtain the true elastic energy in pure shear. The single edge notch specimens were tested in room temperature under quasi-static loading. The pure mode I results suggest that the critical tearing depends strongly on the loading rate as well as the temperature. The tearing behavior shows stick-slip pattern at low tearing rates and smooth propagation at high velocities. The size of the stick-slip region is reduced significantly by increasing the loading rate as well as the temperature. In the mixed mode I and II, the transition from the stick-slip to smooth propagation and the transition from mixed mode I and II take place approximately simultaneously.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Teknisk mekanik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Applied Mechanics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Hållfasthetslära

Solid Mechanics

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

rap (subject category)