Influence of the mechanical and chemical factors on stress changing and fatigue life (the number of stretching cycles to failure) in NR gum vulcanizates was studied under repeated large extensions in air.
It was found that, under constant repeated large extensions at 20°C, the degree of stress changing and the magnitude of fatigue life in rubbers were influenced by the chemical crosslink structure, the crosslink density, and the degree of extension. Under repeated extensions of 500% at the temperature of 80°C or more, the test samples showed remarkable stress softening (which we call chemical stress softening) due to thermal oxidation of rubbers.
The relationship among fatigue life (
F), ultimate elongation (ε
b), and repeated extension (ε) of NR gum vulcanizates at 20°C was as follows;
F=
A(ε
b-ε)
nwhere
n and
A were the characteristic parameters, and the value on
n was 4.0 to 4.5.
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