Cyclic Stress Relaxation (Csr) of Filled Rubber and Rubber Components

Abstract

Abstract Under repeated stressing it is well known that rubber materials exhibit cyclic stress relaxation (CSR). Previous work has shown that the amount of relaxation observed from cycle to cycle is significantly greater than that expected from static relaxation measurements. The reduction in the stress attained on the second and successive loading cycles as compared to the stress attained on the first cycle in a stress strain cyclic test of fixed amplitude has been measured for elastomer test pieces and engineering components. It is seen that the peak force, under cyclic testing to a specific maximum displacement, plotted against the number of cycles on logarithmic scales produces a straight line graph, whose slope correlates to the rate of cyclic stress relaxation per decade. The rate of cyclic stress relaxation was found to increase with displacement amplitude in all modes of deformation. Plotting the rate of stress relaxation per decade against the maximum average strain energy attained in the cycle reduces the data measured in different deformation modes for both simple test pieces and components to a single curve. This approach allows the cyclic stress relaxation in a real component to be predicted from simple laboratory tests.