The Impact of Chain Oxidation on Stress Relaxation of NR-Elastomers and Life-Time Prediction

The durability of NR-based elastomer material has been examined by stress relaxation and chemical analytical methods in order to investigate the impact of chemical ageing on relaxation processes. The secondary relaxation process, which is derived by separation from the stress relaxation curve, is found to be closely related to the oxidation induction time detected by chemiluminescence. It is suggested that thermal exposition during the initial phase of stress relaxation is mainly due to rearrangement of the filler network and polymer-filler interactions.