Study Of The Mechanical Behavior Of Elastomer Protective Materials

In order to study the mechanical behaviour of elastomers at large deformations a theoretical description was developed for the loading-unloading hysteresis loop at large deformations and as a function of the strain rate. Bergstrm and Boyces proposition that the elastomer behaviour is controlled by two contributions the first one corresponding to the equilibrium state and the second one to a non-linear rate-dependent deviation from that equilibrium state and their use of Zeners rheological model were applied to an uniaxial tension configuration. A validation of the description was performed with nitrile rubber. A good agreement of the theoretical description with experimental results was obtained. This simple description of the hysteresis behaviour of elastomers as a function of the strain rate provides a useful tool for estimating the mechanical behaviour at various strain rates with potential application in the design of protective gloves.