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 5-day course provides the know-how for engineering durable elastomeric components and systems. The course includes live demos of typical behavior.

Workshop Date

Location

Price

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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.

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:

Introduction
Elastomers as Engineered Materials
Stress-Strain Module

Day 2:

Basic Concepts in Elastomer Fatigue
Strategy in Fatigue Testing
Core Fatigue Module

Day 3:

Intrinsic Strength Module
Reliability
Nonrelaxing Fatigue Module (Strain crystallizing and amorphous rubbers)

Day 4:

Rubber’s Fatigue Design Envelope
Thermal Module
Ageing Module

Day 5:

Creep Module
Cyclic Softening Module
Fatigue Analysis