VISCOELASTIC RESPONSE OF ELASTOMERS IN LARGE DEFORMATIONS

A simple nonlinear theory of viscoelasticity has been developed for ap plication to elastomers. The interpretation of nonlinear viscoelastic responses based on Gibbs-DiMarzio theory has been identified at a mole cular level and hence structural understanding has been established. T he introduced model is applied to strain imposed conditions. From this , a relaxation process has been revealed for the resultant stress, whe re a dependence of relaxation time on the state of strain has been est ablished.