ABSTRACT

It has been known for several decades that rubbers exhibit a hydrostatic pressure-temperature superposition, interpreted by the free-volume theory. Moreover, our experimental results, on a filled rubber, demonstrate a hydrostatic pressure-temperature superposition which is two orders of magnitude larger than the one observed in pure rubbers. A new physico-mechanical model is proposed to account for the hydrostatic pressure effect responsible for a local glass transition temperature shift. It is suggested that it comes from the change of distances between aggregates. The predicted shift, given by the model, is found to be consistent with experimental data.