The delayed fracture test for viscoelastic elastomers

TL;DR

This paper explains the delayed fracture test for viscoelastic elastomers using a fundamental fracture criterion involving intrinsic fracture energy, simplifying the understanding of crack growth in these materials.

Contribution

It applies a fundamental fracture criterion to elucidate the delayed fracture behavior in viscoelastic elastomers, building on recent theoretical developments.

Findings

The critical condition for crack growth depends solely on the intrinsic fracture energy.

The fundamental form simplifies the analysis of delayed fracture tests.

Provides a theoretical basis for interpreting delayed fracture phenomena.

Abstract

In a recent contribution, Shrimali and Lopez-Pamies (2023) have shown that the Griffith criticality condition that governs crack growth in viscoelastic elastomers can be reduced -- from its ordinary form involving a historically elusive loading-history-dependent critical tearing energy $T_c$ -- to a fundamental form that involves exclusively the intrinsic fracture energy $G_c$ of the elastomer. The purpose of this paper is to make use of this fundamental form to explain one of the most distinctive fracture tests for viscoelastic elastomers, the so-called delayed fracture test.