Endurica Training: Characterizing Elastomer Fatigue Behavior for Analysis and Engineering

Introduction

Elastomers are outstanding in their ability to repeatedly endure large deformations, and they are often applied where fatigue performance is a critical consideration. Because the macromolecular structure of elastomers gives rise to a number of unique behaviors, appropriately specialized methods are needed to characterize, analyze, and design for durability. This 3-day course provides the know-how for engineering durable elastomeric components and systems. The course includes live demos of typical behavior.

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Detailed Workshop Description

Workshop Outline

Elastomers as an engineered material.
Stress-strain behavior: physics, phenomenology, characterization, and modeling.
Self-heating in elastomers.
Physics of elastomer fatigue.
Phenomenology of durability: strength, fatigue threshold, R-ratio effects, the Haigh diagram.
Crack Nucleation and Fracture Mechanics analysis approaches.
Factors that affect fatigue behavior.
Material characterization for fatigue life assessment.
Dealing with multiaxial loading.
Dealing with variable amplitude loading and damage accumulation.
Finite Element modeling for fatigue life prediction.

Course Objectives

Know the physics and factors that govern rubber’s fatigue behavior.
Use accurate models and efficient procedures to characterize fatigue behavior.
Take advantage of test strategies that minimize risk and maximize productivity.
Use crack nucleation and fracture mechanics approaches effectively.
Use characterization to inform accurate fatigue calculations.
Use characterization to diagnose and solve development issues.

Format

The course includes lectures, live lab demos, and hands-on exercises focused on processing and interpreting experimental measurements of fatigue behavior. Lunch, snacks, and dinner on Day 1 included.

Instructor

Thomas G. Ebbott, Ph.D. Tom is a tire industry veteran known for his leadership in driving advances in modeling, simulation and workflows across a global organization. He joined Endurica in 2022 after a 35-year career at Goodyear. While at Goodyear, he held various technical and leadership positions with experience in product development, modeling and simulation, and materials characterization. He was a major contributor to the technical partnership between Goodyear and Sandia National Laboratories. He also enjoyed a two-year assignment at Goodyear’s technical center in Luxembourg as the Manager of Computational Mechanics. He has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions including 4 Superior Paper awards from the Tire Society. His published works include topics such as fracture mechanics and crack growth in rubber; fatigue of cord-rubber composites; non-linear viscoelasticity and constitutive modeling; tire rolling resistance and temperature prediction.

Agenda

Day 1: 8:30 – 4:45 pm, 6 pm Course Dinner

Elastomers as engineered materials
Design, Analysis and Characterization for Durability with Rubber
Stiffness, mode of control, compound optimization
Stress-strain – molecular origins and hyperelasticity
Stress-strain – cyclic phenomena and advanced models
Self-heating in rubber
Tearing energy

Day 2: 8:15 – 4:45 pm

Characterizing strength of rubber
The fatigue threshold
Strategic considerations in fatigue testing
Characterizing Fatigue behavior of individual cracks – fully relaxing cycles
Characterizing Fatigue behavior – nonrelaxing cycles and strain crystallization
Crack nucleation, S-N curves, Continuum Damage

Day 3: 8:15 – 3:00 pm

Characterizing crack precursor size
Rubber’s Fatigue Design Envelope
Aging
Multiaxial loading and Critical Plane Analysis
Fatigue in tension, shear, and compression
Variable amplitude loading, Rainflow counting, and damage accumulation
Component testing