THE EFFECT OF CHEMICAL-REACTIONS CAUSING A CHANGE IN NETWORK STRUCTURE ON THE VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES OF CURED ELASTOMERS AND ELASTOMER-BASED COMPOSITES

By studying the relaxation of compressive and shear stress, it is show n experimentally that the deformation of cured elastomers and elastome r-based composites is described by the generalized Maxwell viscoelasti city equation. The parameters of the equation (Young's modulus E, the modulus of high-elasticity E(infinity), relaxational viscosity eta0, rate coefficient m) are weakly dependent on the form of the stress. T he values of E(infinity) and eta0 grow linearly with the growth of th e cure degree beta, whereas the dependence m(beta) is weak. Filling o f the elastomer causes a steep rise in m, the values of E and eta0* g row to a lesser extent, and eta0/(E + E(infinity)) ratio stays virtua lly constant.