ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to investigate the influence of glass spheres as model flaws on the fatigue to failure and crack propagation properties of rubber materials. Mechanical fatigue of elastomers is manifested in a progressive reduction of physical properties as a result of breakdown of characteristic structures and crack propagation on a microscopic scale during continuous dynamic excitation. The fatigue behaviour of materials like metals and ceramics is well researched and described in the literature. In particular emphasis has been placed on the testing of fatigue properties with varying stress amplitudes and minimum stresses and this data has been represented on Wohler curves and Haigh diagrams. The comparison of the experimental fatigue data and the calculation results shows an excellent correlation for the material containing 203 m glass spheres with the simulation of the similar crack length. The addition of smaller spheres exhibits an increasing discrepancy with the calculated behaviour.
