Important Mechanical and Chemical Factors in the Failure Behavior of Polybutadiene Rubber Undergoing Oxidative Aging at Ambient Temperature

Abstract

Abstract Zhurkov's molecular kinetic concept of failure for hard solid materials was extended for application to rubber systems which undergo oxidative degradation during long-term atmospheric exposure. In an effort to analyze the chemical and mechanical effects separately, the dependency of the life-time of the uniaxially stressed rubber was expressed in terms of (1) chemical effects involving the primary chemical bonds in the effective chains, and (2) mechanical effects involving the network structure of the rubber.