Investigation of fracture resistance of natural rubber/clay nanocomposites by J-testing

The present work is aimed at studying the fracture behavior of a series of vulcanized natural rubber/organoclay samples obtained by melt blending. A fracture mechanics approach based on J-testing was adopted to evaluate the material resistance to crack initiation and propagation from a J-resistance curve as experimentally obtained by a single specimen procedure. The basis of the method and the experimental procedure adopted are described. Further, the effect of the organoclay content within the elastomeric matrix on the fracture properties is analyzed. It is found that the capability of the organoclay to improve fracture resistance is rate dependent indicating the viscoelastic character of the fracture process in such filled systems.