Abstract: | Stress–strain and rupture data were determined on an unfilled styrene–butadiene vulcanizate at temperatures from ?45 to 35°C and at extension rates from 0.0096 to 9.6 min?1. The data were represented by four functions: (1) the well-known temperature function (shift factor) aT; (2) the constant strain rate modulus, F(t,T), reduced to temperature T0 and time t/aT, i.e., T0F(t/aT)/T; (3) the time-dependent maximum extensibility, λm(t/aT); and (4) a function Ω(χ) where χ = (λ ? 1)λm0/λm, in which λ is the extension ratio and λm0 is the maximum extensibility under equilibrium conditions. The constant strain rate modulus characterizes the stress–time response to a constant extension rate at small strains, within the range of linear response; λm is a material parameter needed to represent the response at large λ; and Ω(χ) represents the stress–strain curve of the material in a reference state of unit modulus and λm = λm. The shift factor aT was found to be sensibly independent of extension. At all values of t/aT for which the maximum extensibility is time-independent, the relaxation rate was also found to be independent of λ. These observations indicate that the monomeric friction coefficient is strain-independent over the ranges of T and λ covered in the present study. It was found that λm0 = 8.6 and that the largest extension ratio at break, (λb)max, is 7.3. Thus, rupture always occurs before the network is fully extended. |