Effect of physical and chemical crosslinking structure on fatigue behavior of styrene butadiene elastomer

ABSTRACT The fatigue behavior of two styrene butadiene rubbers, thermoplastic elastomer (SBS) with physical crosslinking structure and vulcanized styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) with chemical crosslinking structure, was investigated. The fatigue lives of SBS and SBR were greatly affected by the fatigue frequency, amplitude, and temperature. The fatigue lives of both SBS and SBR decreased with the increasing fatigue frequency and amplitude. However, the effect of fatigue temperature on the fatigue life of SBS was different from that of SBR. With the increasing fatigue temperature, the fatigue life of SBS first decreased and then increased, however, the fatigue life of SBR showed continuous decreasing trend. The tensile strength of SBS first increased and then decreased with the increase of fatigue time, but the tensile strength of SBR was not significantly influenced by the fatigue time. The fatigue amplitude had greater effect on the tensile strength of SBS than that of SBR. The permanent deformation of both SBS and SBR increased with temperature; however, the parameter for the former rubber was higher than that of the latter. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40917.