Fracture properties of silica/carbon black-filled natural rubber vulcanizates

Crack growth property of natural rubber (NR) vulcanizate with varying silica/carbon black content was examined. Tensile specimen with edge cut was used for estimating fracture properties. All filled NR specimens showed critical cut-size (Ccr), which is related to abrupt decrease in tensile strength. Carbon black-filled NR, S0 (Si/N330=0/50) has higher tensile strength than equivalently loaded silica-filled NR vulcanizates, S5 (Si/N330=50/0). When the precut size of specimen was less than critical cut-size, tensile strength of S1 (Si/N330=10/40) composition was the highest and that of S5 was the lowest. The critical cut-size passes through a maximum for S2 (Si/N330=20/30) and then decreases gradually with silica loading. An interesting result was that silica and carbon black-blended compounds gave higher critical cut size than the all-carbon black compounds, S0. The inherent flaw size decreased from 246 μm for S0 to 80 μm for S5 as the silica content increased.