Dynamic behavior of short aramid fiber-filled elastomer composites

Abstract

Short fiber reinforcement is a suitable way to improve the tribological properties of elastomers. However, rubbers products are often exposed to highly dynamic mechanical loadings. Hereby it is crucial to study the change in dynamic behavior due to the addition of short fibers. Therefore, these properties were investigated in terms of dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, heat build-up (HBU), and fatigue crack growth resistance under cyclic loadings for two different rubber compounds. A peroxide cured ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) and a sulfur cured natural rubber (NR) compound were chosen and reinforced with two types of short aramid fibers. It was found that the short fibers could contribute to the improvement in the crack growth resistance, HBU, and the dynamic mechanical behavior of the composites depending on the testing conditions. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:2958-2964, 2014. (c) 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers