Filled rubber materials exhibit a complex macroresponse characterized by stress softening, hysteresis, and dissipative heating when they are cyclically loaded. The relationship of these inelastic features to the microstructure changes is far from being fully established. This paper deals with the damage mechanisms in sulfur‐vulcanized styrene‐butadiene rubber (SBR) specimens in the diablo form reinforced with carbon‐black (CB) and zinc‐oxide (ZnO) fillers, and submitted to tension cyclic loading at room temperature. The microstructure alteration is characterized at different relevant scales and at different zones of the diabolo specimen by means of various technologies in the aim to report valuable insights about the mechanisms responsible for the macroresponse of this rubber‐filler material system. IR absorption spectra reveal that increasing filler content induces more interfacial interaction between CB and SBR chains. The environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) observations show relevant altered morphologies of elastomeric chains with a predominant effect of both CB and ZnO fillers. A mesoscale observation of material density variation is presented using X‐ray computed tomography and the results are compared with those issued from ESEM.

中文翻译：

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炭黑填充丁苯橡胶疲劳损伤机理的多尺度观察

填充的橡胶材料在循环加载时表现出复杂的宏观响应，其特征在于应力软化，滞后和耗散加热。这些非弹性特征与微观结构变化之间的关系远未完全建立。本文探讨了用炭黑（CB）和氧化锌（ZnO）填料增强的暗黑破坏神形式的硫磺硫化丁苯橡胶（SBR）标本的破坏机理，并在室温下承受了周期性拉伸载荷。通过各种技术，在不同的相关尺度和空竹标本的不同区域对微观结构的变化进行了表征，目的是报告有关造成这种橡胶填充材料系统宏观响应的机制的宝贵见解。红外吸收光谱表明，增加填料含量会引起CB和SBR链之间更多的界面相互作用。环境扫描电子显微镜（ESEM）的观察结果表明，弹性链的形态发生了相关变化，其中CB和ZnO填料均发挥了主要作用。使用X射线计算机断层扫描对材料密度变化进行中尺度观察，并将结果与​​ESEM的结果进行比较。