Cavitation in elastomers: A review of the evidence against elasticity

In spite of the growing body of evidence against it, the elasticity view of the phenomenon of cavitation in elastomers continues to be utilized in numerous studies. In this context, the main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the existing evidence that settles that cavitation in elastomers is not a purely elastic phenomenon. To that end, a review is first given of the experimental observations of cavitation in elastomers — gathered since the 1930s until present times — as well as of its theoretical description as an elastic phenomenon — whose development started in the 1950s and was substantially completed by the 2010s. The latter is then confronted to the former to pinpoint the reasons why the elastic behavior of elastomers cannot possibly explain the experimental observations. The last part of the paper includes a brief summary of the current view of cavitation as a fracture phenomenon and an outlook for the field in that direction.