Material BehaviourRupture of swollen styrene butadiene rubber

Elastomers have recently been explored to make swellable packers in the oil industry, which have many advantages over traditional cement packers. In the applications, the elastomers absorb solvent and swell against the confinement, which can seal zones in the borehole. In addition, swollen elastomers are usually subjected to a large pressure difference, which can cause fracture of the elastomer. In this article, we conduct experimental studies of the rupture behavior of an oil-swellable elastomer, styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), swollen in hexadecane. This combination of elastomer and swelling agent can be considered representative of oilfield applications. Pure-shear tests are used to measure the stretch at rupture and fracture energy of swollen SBR with different swelling ratios. It is found that swelling can significantly reduce both the stretch at rupture and the fracture energy of the swollen elastomer. Using the measured fracture energy, we have also successfully predicted the stretches at rupture of SBR for a simple extension test with different volume swelling ratios.