On Mooney and Mooney stress relaxation. II. A nonlinear viscoelastic description: Experimental and numerical results

Abstract

It has been investigated whether the stress build-up and the stress relaxation involved in a Mooney test, with subsequent Mooney stress relaxation, can be described by nonlinear viscoelastic theory, more particularly the Wagner constitutive model. For this purpose, the viscoelastic behavior of three nonvulcanized EPDM materials, with similar Mooney viscosity but varying elasticity, has been studied. Relaxation time spectra were obtained from dynamic mechanical experiments, from which the step-strain stress-relaxation modulus was calculated. Stress build-up experiments were performed with a cone and plate system in order to obtain the so-called damping function (a measure for the deformation sensitivity) of the materials. Using these material functions, the Mooney test was successfully described with the Wagner constitutive model. Experimental and theoretical Mooney stress-relaxation rates are in close agreement. The predicted Mooney viscosity is up to 25% lower than the measured value. This may be due to nonideal conditions during the Mooney test, such as inhomogeneous heating and secondary flows, and to inaccuracy of the damping function. The model calculations confirm the strong experimental dependence of Mooney measurements on small variations in instrumental conditions such as geometry, rotation speed, and so forth. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 74: 1220–1233, 1999