Abstract
The development of a procedure for assessing the effective deformation properties of filled, hyperelastic polymer composites (chiefly, rubber compounds) is presented. The rigid interphase contact layer is taken into account in the model of the elastomer composite. The filled elastomer can be regarded as a three-component system consisting of: filler particles (of different size); an interphase layer, which can be regarded as part of the modified matrix; the ‘pure’ matrix. In this first part of this study, the general organisation of the investigation is described, a model of the filled elastomer composite is formulated, and the problem of identifying the properties of the hyperelastic matrix is solved on the basis of a potential taking into account the non-linear effects of change in the rigidity of the polymeric material under elongation. The possibility of using the developed procedure to describe the deformation properties of the unfilled vulcanisate of styrene butadiene rubber, i.e. the ‘pure’ matrix, is also shown. The calculated deformation curve coincides completely with the experimental curve when the developed method is used to determine the coefficients of the equations.
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