This paper presents a physics-based constitutive equation to predict the
mechanical responses of thermochemically aged elastomers. High-temperature
oxidation in elastomers is a complex phenomenon. The macromolecular network
of elastomers’ microstructures undergoes chain scission and crosslinking
under high temperature and oxygen saturation conditions. In this work, we
modify the network stiffness and the chain extensibility in the well-known
Arruda–Boyce constitutive equation to incorporate network changes in the
microstructures of elastomers during thermochemical aging. In particular, the effects
of network evolution due to aging in changing the shear modulus and the number
of Kuhn monomers are considered. The modification is based on chemical
characterization tests measuring the crosslink density evolution. The developed
constitutive equation predicts the mechanical responses of thermochemically aged
elastomers independently of any mechanical tests on aged samples. The proposed
constitutive equation is validated with respect to a comprehensive set of
experimental data available in the literature that were designed to capture
thermochemical aging effects in elastomers. The comparison showed that the
developed constitutive equation can accurately predict the tensile tests conducted
on aged samples based on crosslink density evolution input. The obtained
constitutive equation is physics-based, simple, and includes minimal material
parameters.
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