Damage of Cross-Linked Rubbers as the Scission of Polymer Chains: Modeling and Tensile Experiments, Report 1

This paper develops a damage model for unfilled cross-linked rubbers based on the concept of scission of polymer chains. The model is built up on the well-known Gent elastic potential complemented by a kinetic equation describing effects of polymer chain scission. The macroscopic parameters in the damage model are evaluated through the parameters for undamaged elastomer. Qualitative analysis of changing molecular parameters of rubbers under scission of polymer chains resulted in easy scaling modeling the dependences of these parameters on the damage factor. It makes possible to predict the rubber failure in molecular terms as mechanical de-vulcanization. The model was tested in tensile quasi-static experiments with both the monotonous loading and repeated loading-unloading.