STRESS-SOFTENING EFFECTS IN ELASTOMERIC NETWORKS

The stresses observed during retraction are usually lower in magnitude than can be accounted for from considerations such as irreversible al teration of structure due to fracture of chains or their detachment fr om filler particles. The mechanism underlying this hysteresis has been modeled empirically by the introduction of irreversibility into the d amping function. In this work a modification of the damping function i s proposed in terms of the reduction of the Mooney-Rivlin constants, d uring the retraction of the strain. A good agreement with the experime ntal data, obtained for four different networks, has been verified.