Experimental Analysis on Crack Propagation in Elastomers

We investigate experimentally various aspects of the crack propagation phenomena in elastomers by means of “dc/dt” method. Propagation speed (v), shape of crack tip, and local strain distribution near the crack tip are examined as a function of imposed tearing energy (G). In particular, we focus on a discontinuous transition of v at a characteristic value of G(Gc) between slow and fast modes. We correlate the G dependence of v and crack-tip...