An introduction to nonlinear Viscoelasticity of filled Rubber: A continuum mechanics approach

The use of rubber in industry has grown rapidly and constantly since the discovery of vulcanization in 1839: tires, belts, seals, gaskets, mounts are but a few of the myriad products made of rubber nowadays. The neat elastomer, natural or synthetic, is employed after the addition of reinforcing fillers to improve thermal stability and mechanical properties. The resulting compound can be stretched to about ten times its original length and possesses both solid-like and fluid-like characteristics, well described by nonlinear viscoelastic models.
The purpose of this book is to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of all aspects concerning the mechanical characterization of filled rubber: from experiments to modelling, from parameters identification to numerical simulations. Throughout the book, the modelling aspects are approached from a continuum mechanics perspective: by inferring the behavior of the material under different loading conditions, macroscopic constitutive relations between stress and strain are derived without reference to the internal structure.
In detail, the aspects addressed cover:
- The basic phenomenology of rubber under static and dynamic loading conditions.
- A brief introduction to main aspects of nonlinear elasticity.
- A detailed overview of the different nonlinear viscoelastic approaches used in the literature.
- A thorough description of nonlinear identification techniques to estimate model coefficients from the experimental data.
- An overview of Finite Element codes used to simulate the large strain behavior of filled rubber.