Experimental Study of the Effect of Temperature on Strength and Extensibility of Rubberlike Materials

Rubber-like materials are widely used in several industrial applications. In these applications, rubber components are largely subjected to biaxial loading at a range of temperatures. In this work, we study the effect of short-term temperature on the ultimate properties of rubber materials, particularly, their strength. Such studies are lacking in the literature. For this purpose, we consider three different rubber-like materials; Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR), Neoprene and Silicone. These rubber materials are tested under equi-biaxial tension using the bulge test. Tests are conducted till failure under a constant temperature. Four different temperatures are considered; 25 ^∘C, 50 ^∘C, 70 ^∘C and 90 ^∘C. Experiments are modeled using a finite element method. A constitutive model which includes the description of failure through energy limiters is calibrated against the bulge experiments. It is found that while the material stiffness is not significantly affected by temperature the ultimate stress and stretch, as well as the energy limiter for NBR and Neoprene greatly depend upon temperature. Stress carrying capacity for NBR and Neoprene decreases drastically at the highest temperature considered as compared to their values at room temperature (25 ^∘C). Properties of Silicone are not affected significantly because of its temperature resistance. A new constitutive function is developed for the energy limiter, which allows unifying the description of different materials.