ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews several aspects of the deformation and fracture of rubbery materials. When a rubber block of rectangular cross-section, bonded between two rigid parallel plates, is deformed by a displacement of one of the bonded plates in the length direction, the rubber is placed in a state of simple shear. For a rectangular rubber block, plane strain conditions were imposed in the width direction and the rubber was assumed to be an incompressible elastic solid obeying the simplest nonlinear constitutive relation. Similar internal stresses can develop in the interior of a rubber tube spring, consisting of a cylindrical rubber tube bonded on its inner and outer curved surfaces between rigid cylindrical surfaces. Measurements on a number of rubber compounds of the energy needed to propagate a tear in the direction of stretching showed that it is reduced markedly by a quite moderate extension, of the order of 100%.
