Notable mechanical behavior of thin monoholar rubber flat slab under tension loading

摘要

There have been strong interests in achieving unconventional mechanical properties of materials utilized for various applications in recent years. Apart from the well known composite material approach, an innovative approach of employing cellular structure or repeated geometric pattern has been of great interest. The simple example that has been proved useful and promising is the monoholar pattern. Experimental investigations of monoholar rubber flat slab have demonstrated a number of unusual mechanical behaviors under compression loading unable to achieve before. It is thus enticing to find out if the same is possible under tension loading. This research therefore embarks on applying tension load on a thin monoholar rubber flat slab, 1/10 as thick as the flat slab tested under compression loading. Results of the experiments clearly demonstrate similar behaviors as observed in the case of compression loading. However stress plateau is not observable in the stress-strain curve obtained under tension loading. This is because the test specimen reaches rupture point after undergoing a certain level of stress. Ligament thickness has been observed to effect noticeable drop in stress level before gradually increasing towards stress level that causes full blown rupture. This may lead to some promising applications related to tension loading.