A fracture criterion of rubber-like materials under plane stress conditions

In this work, we attempt to derive a fracture criterion for filled and unfilled elastomer vulcanizates and thermoplastics from a set of experimental data. Firstly, fracture criteria reported in the literature have been applied to experimental data obtained from tests including various loading modes (simple tension, equal biaxial tension and biaxial tension) and performed on four materials: a natural rubber (NR), a styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), a polyurethane (PU) and a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE). Then, a new failure criterion based on an equivalent elongation concept is proposed. This equivalent elongation seems to be linearly dependent on a given biaxiality ratio n = (1n(lambda(2b))/1n(lambda(1b))), which leads to expressing the principal elongations at break as functions of both the biaxiality it and two experimental parameters. Quite good agreement is highlighted when comparing the failure experimental data with the proposed criterion for the tested elastomers. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.