Fatigue of rubber at low strains

The fatigue failure of natural rubber vulcanizates undergoing repeated low tensile deformations has been investigated. It is found that below a critical deformation the life is greatly influenced by the ozone concentration in the test atmosphere. This result was anticipated theoretically from previous studies of cut growth behavior, and the theory enables the combined effects of the two cut growth mechanisms—mechanicooxidative rupture and ozone scission—to be taken into account in predicting fatigue life.