ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how aspects of the constitutive responses of polyurethane elastomers vary with composition: the hard segment, soft segment and chain extender were varied systematically in a family of 14 segmented copolyurethane elastomers. It addresses problem by studying a series of model thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers. The constitutive response of particle-reinforced elastomers continues to pose major problems to the modeler. The interest was two-fold. Firstly, the polyurethane elastomers are an important and highly versatile class of two-phase elastomers in their own right, and a better understanding of their behaviour is badly needed, for their potential to be exploited more fully. Secondly, since their structures can be varied systematically, they are an ideal vehicle for probing the sensitivity of inelastic effects to structural detail, and hence providing information of generic interest in the modeling of hard-phase reinforced elastomers.
