Czekanski, AlexZhang, Can2021-07-062021-07-062021-042021-07-06http://hdl.handle.net/10315/38498Natural rubber is widely used in industrial fields owing to its good elasticity and ductility. It is important to study the fatigue behaviour of rubber because it affects the service life of rubber products. The objectives of this study were to (1) investigate a protocol of rounded samples to understand how deformation, temperature, frequency, and aging impact natural rubber fatigue behavior; (2) determine the relationship between the number of fatigue life cycles and the applied load for various loading and environment conditions; (3) evaluate the macromorphology of the fracture area and observe the crack propagation rate and direction. When the frequency is below 5Hz and the deformation is 25% strain level, the crack growth rate is stable, the fracture interface is flat, and the fatigue life is long. Moreover, temperature influences include the effect of the environmental temperature and the heat generated by the self-heating of rubber.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Mechanical engineeringElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2021-07-06natural rubberfatigue behaviordeformationfrequencytemperatureaging