ABSTRACT
A set of non-crystallizing styrene butadiene rubbers with various crosslink densities, and amount and type of carbon-black fillers was manufactured to study the impact of the microstructure parameters on the mechanical response with an emphasis on material softening and resistance to mode I fracture. Cyclic uniaxial tests at small and large strains were applied to study the Payne and the Mullins effects, while single edge notch monotonic tension tests were considered for mode I fracture. Results are discussed, from a mechanical point of view, with two main goals, defining original modeling that provides quantitative impact of the microstructure parameters and providing general trends for material design.
