Effects of small particles on the mechanical behavior and on the local damage of highly filled elastomers

The mechanical behavior and damage of highly filled elastomers such as propellants are studied experimentally. A model material made of a polyacrylate matrix filled with glass beads and energetic binders filled with ammonium perchlorate and HMX have been formulated. The focus is on materials containing micrometric size particles. The size of fillers was varied from a few microns to hundreds of microns in order to study the impact of the size of particles. The materials stress–strain responses and the volume changes during uniaxial tensile tests have been recorded. Microtomographic slices of strained samples have been obtained in order to look at the type of damage sustained by the acrylate/glass bead materials. It appears that in the presence of large particles, composites showing early prominent crack benefit from the addition of small particles, whereas composites showing well-dispersed matrix/particle decohesion without large cracks show no change of behavior when small particles are added.