THERMO-MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF CYCLICALLY LOADED PARTICLE-REINFORCED ELASTOMER COMPONENTS: EXPERIMENT AND FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT Elastomer components are often subjected to periodic loading conditions during service. Elastomer parts are used because of their large extensibility and significant damping characteristics, where the latter originate from inelastic material features. Combined with cyclic loading conditions, the inelastic properties of the material yield mechanical energy dissipation, its transformation to thermal energy, and heat buildup in the elastomer component. The experimental and numerical understanding of the thermo-mechanical coupling of elastomers is a prerequisite to predict the temperature rise in elastomer components. In this contribution, experimental and numerical investigations on cyclically loaded dumbbell-shaped elastomer components are addressed. A thermo-mechanical material model representing finite nonlinear viscoelasticity and a temperature- and deformation-dependent heat capacity is used within the finite element method to compute the heat buildup in the dumbbell-shaped elastomer components. The simulation results (surface temperature evolution) for three different loading frequencies are compared with experimental data.