Polyurethane elastomers exhibit inelastic effects under cyclic deformation, including stress softening, hysteresis and permanent set. In this paper, we present a new method for characterization of the inelastic behavior by infrared thermography. Two salient inelastic features of temperature change for elastic fibers have been observed: (1) temperature variation is partly reversible in the first cycle and totally reversible in the following cycles, (2) temperature variation is strongly dependent on strain rate during the first loading process and less dependent on strain rate during the second ...
