Why is the strength of an elastomeric polymer network so low? (opens in new tab)

Experiments have long shown that a polymer network of covalent bonds commonly ruptures at a stress that is orders of magnitude lower than the strength of the covalent bonds. Here we investigate this large reduction in strength by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. We show that the network ruptures by sequentially breaking a small fraction of bonds, and that each broken bond lies on the minimum "shortest path". The shortest path i...