Time dependencies in the response of self-organizing linkage patterns to imposed deformation

Important properties of inelastic rubber materials might be emergent effects of a self-organizing process within the molecular structure. Recent improvements of the so-called Trial program, which is used to check the consequences of this theory, are discussed. Despite an extreme abstraction of the real conditions and interactions on the molecular level, the program reproduces typical nonlinearities, hysteresis and stress softening effects. The implementation of thermally induced rupture of physical linkages should make the simulation of time dependencies in the response to imposed deformation possible.