Mechanism of Fatigue Crack Growth in Carbon Black Filled Natural Rubber

The present paper deals with the fatigue crack growth in a carbon black filled cis-1,4-polyisoprene rubber under relaxing loading conditions. The study focuses on the determination of the scenario of crack growth. For this purpose, an original “microcutting” method is employed to observe microscopic phenomena involved in the growth of the crack with a SEM. It reveals that the cavitation induced by the decohesion between zinc oxides and rubber matrix is the major fatigue damage and that the crack tip is composed of stretched elliptical areas surrounded by highly stretched and crystallized ligaments. Finally, the observations are considered to establish the fatigue crack growth mechanism.