Abstract
Fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of natural rubber/ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (NR/EPDM) blend vulcanizates under dynamic tearing condition was investigated by using a fracture mechanics approach. It appeared that variation of crack growth rate with blend compositions was dependent on the level of imposed tearing energy G. At low tearing energy region, the FCG rates of the blend were lower as the EPDM content was increased, while at high tearing energy region, the trend was reversed. Over the measured range of tearing energy G, all blend compositions showed the lower crack growth rates compared to the average of properties of component elastomers. When the blends were thermally aged, the fatigue resistance of the blends was deteriorated in proportion to the concentration of EPDM phase. Fatigue crack growth behavior of the blends was supposed to be associated with the inhomogeneities of the crosslink structure of the blends arising from cure incompatibility of the EPDM and NR when they are sulphur cured.