ABSTRACT
Elastomeric materials are widely used in industry e.g. for tyres, seals and print rollers. The required service life of such components is usually decreased due to the formation and propagation of cracks. Hence, the modification of material structure in order to increase the resistance against crack initiation and crack propagation is an important branch of materials science. The fracture of a material generally involves a number of complex processes on multiple length scales. An increased fracture toughness can be achieved by modifying the structure of the material by way of inducing dissipative processes on various lexngth scales, which result in increasing the energy adsorption accompanying the process of crack propagation through this material.
