Failure mechanisms in thin rubber sheet composites under static solicitation

Purpose: Mechanical behaviour and damage mechanisms in thin rubber sheet composites were investigated under static solicitation at room temperature. Two types of rubber are used in this study; Natural rubber, NR vulcanised and reinforced by carbon black and Synthetic rubber (styrene-butadiene-rubber, SBR). Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive study has been carried out in order to identify a threshold criterion for the damage mechanism to explain a tearing criterion for the concept of tearing energy of the elastomers and also to give a detail for the damage mechanism depending on the loading conditions. A typical type of specimen geometry of thin sheet rubber composite materials was studied under static tensile tests conducted on the smooth and notched specimens with variable depths. In this way, the effects of the plane stress on the damage mechanism are characterized depending on the rubber materials. Findings: Damage mechanisms during tensile test have been described for both of rubber types and the criteria which characterize the tearing resistance, characteristic energy for tearing (T) was explained. Damage in the specimens were evaluated just at the beginning of the tearing by means of the observations in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Practical implications: A tearing criterion was suggested in the case of simple tension conditions by assuming large strain. In the next step of this study, a finite element analysis (FEA) will be applied under the same conditions of this part in order to obtain the agreement between experimental and FEA results. Originality/value: This study propses a threshold criterion for the damage just at the beginning of the tearing for thin sheet rubber composites and gives a detail discussion for explaining the damage mechanisms by SEM results. This type of study gives many facilities for the sake of simplicity in industrial application.