Cavitation Instabilities in Plastics and Rubber-Modified Plastics

Spherical void expansion in plastics and rubber-modified plastics is investigated under radial traction conditions. The plastics are modeled as elastic-plastic pressure-sensitive materials and the rubbers are modeled as nonlinearly elastic materials. First, the growth of a spherical void in an infinite plastic matrix is investigated under remote radial traction conditions. The results show that the cavitation stress of the plastic decreases significantly as the pressure sensitivity increases. Then, the growth of a spherical void located at the center of a spherical rubber particle in an infinite plastic matrix is investigated under remote radial traction conditions. The results indicate that without any failure criteria for the rubber, the cavitation stress does not exist when the void is small and the rubber is characterized by high-order strain energy functions. However, when a failure criterion for the rubber is considered at a finite stretch ratio, the results show that the cavitation stress for the plastic with the rubber particle becomes close to that for the plastic without the rubber particle. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.