Reinforcement of rubber by fractal aggregates

Abstract

Rubber is commonly reinforced with colloidal aggregates of carbon or silica, whose structure has the scale invariance of a fractal object. Reinforced rubbers support large stresses, which often grow faster than linearly with the strain. We argue that under strong elongation the stress arises through lateral compression of the aggregates, driven by the large bulk modulus of the rubber. We derive a power-law relationship between stress and elongation λ when λ≫1. The predicted power p depends on the fractal dimension D and a second structural scaling exponent C. For diffusion-controlled aggregates this power p should lie beween 0.9 and 1.1 ; for reaction-controlled aggregates p should lie between 1.8 and 2.4. For uniaxial compression the analogous powers lie near 4. Practical rubbers filled with fractal aggregates should approach the conditions of validity for these scaling laws.