ABSTRACT
Better understanding and knowledge of fatigue behavior and especially fatigue crack growth behavior of elastomeric compounds are essential in order to improve service lifetimes of dynamically loaded rubber parts. In this study, fatigue crack growth tests have been performed on a styrene – butadiene rubber (commonly called SBR) and a silicone rubber using a dynamic testing machine METRAVIB DMA +1000 from ACOEM. These tests have been carried out following an experimental procedure based on three successive steps: accommodation, characterization (in order to determine the relation between the applied solicitation and the tearing energy) and crack propagation under fatigue. It has been brought to light that the fatigue crack growth behavior of silicone rubbers can also be studied thanks to this experimental procedure. And the influence of the temperature and of the cyclic waveform on the fatigue crack growth behavior of the SBR have been quantified.
