Effect of hydrostatic pressure on the viscosity of failure of polymeric materials

Conclusions A setup and method were developed for studying the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the characteristics of the crack resistance of polymeric materials. The viscosity of failure of material K-4I based on butyl rubber was determined in a wide range of rates of crack propagation and hydrostatic pressures. It was found that an increase in the hydrostatic pressure increases the resistance to crack propagation in a polymeric material. The pressure-time analogy method, where the dependences of the viscosity of failure on the rate of crack growth are parallelly shifted to the value of the pressure-time shift and a generalized curve is formed, can be used for taking the effect of the pressure into consideration.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 6, pp. 973–977, November–December, 1986.