Chuleekorn Tangjai. A study of temperature cycling effect on the viscoelastic behaviour of natural rubber . Master's Degree(Polymer Science and Technology). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2004.
A study of temperature cycling effect on the viscoelastic behaviour of natural rubber
Abstract:
Rubber is employed as an engineering material for dynamic absorption
applications such as a bridge bearings and an automobile parts. The repeated
change in temperature in a cycle affects the viscoelastic behaviour of rubber.
Therefore, relaxation behaviour under a temperature cycling process was
investigated. Natural rubber (NR), with a high relaxation rate, was chosen as a
model in this study. Important factors such as initial strain and crosslink density
were controlled in order to simplify the investigation. The micro-tension apparatus
was built in order to study the relaxation behaviour in the water environment
because the heat conductivity in water is better than in air.
The relaxation behaviour of unfilled NR under the temperature cycling
process was firstly investigated. William-Landel-Ferry theory was employed in this
study in order to verify that both change in entropy and reduction in the internal
viscosity could be considered as the explanation for the relaxation behaviour when
the temperature was raised. However, the stress was dramatically decreased when
the temperature was immediately reduced during the temperature cycling process.
The difference in mobility of the rubber chains due to the non-equilibrium
temperature over the rubber system caused a breakdown of physical interaction
between elastomer-elastomer. Therefore, the stress relaxation behaviour could be
accelerated by performing temperature cycling process. Cycling temperature
repeatedly could reduce a large number of elastomer-elastomer interactions. Not
only might physical interaction between elastomer and elastomer be diminished but
chemical interaction might also be reduced when the temperature gradient of the
temperature cycling is high enough. The effect of time interval of the temperature
cycling on the relaxation behaviour was also studied. Only time interval in the
second step of temperature cycling should be concerned when the rubber was
operated under temperature cycling. Furthermore, the relaxation behaviour of the
carbon black filled NR under temperature cycling was also studied. The reduction
in stress due to the temperature cycling process was governed equally by the break
down in elastomer-elastomer interaction, elastomer-filler interaction and filler-filler
interaction. The temperature cycling technique was also employed to study the
interaction between elastomer and filler in carbon black filled NR prepared by
incorporating carbon black into latex NR (NR-Mast). The results indicated that the
elastomer interacted with carbon black by the physical linkage.