Finite element analysis for evaluation of cure level in a large rubber part

Abstract

Vulcanization or curing is a very important process in producing useful rubber products. The curing process takes place when heat is transferred to the rubber compounds inside a heated mould. The temperature distribution in the rubber significantly affects the cure level distribution throughout the part, especially in a large rubber component. The cure level differences in the rubber product greatly affect its mechanical properties and performances. The vulcanization process can be analysed as a non-linear heat transfer process coupled with curing kinetics. In this work, the vulcanization process is simulated to evaluate the cure level distribution in a large rubber part using the commercial finite software ABAQUS with the cure kinetics model implemented through the user subroutine UMATHT. The results obtained are compared with those obtained from the in-house finite element software “RACE-CURE” previously developed by the authors.