Multi-Physics of Elastomer Aging: Macrostructure Mechanical Properties based on Morphological Chemical Degenerations

弹性体，通常被称为橡胶，具有广泛的应用，如轴承、密封剂、轮胎和抗振安装件。在这种操作下，除了循环机械载荷之外，弹性体还暴露于氧气和高温。氧气和温度会严重降低材料的性能。这种降解被称为老化，并导致表面变脆、收缩和恶化。老化过程，加上机械负荷，加剧了弹性体中的裂纹扩展，并降低了其适用性。老化的实验测试必然是一个耗时的过程。拥有一个可用于模拟的理论框架将大大加快新的，令人兴奋的，可靠的材料的开发，并具有更广泛的应用。这项工作将阐明弹性体的机械响应如何在机械载荷和老化的耦合作用下在其寿命期间发生变化。这项研究将促进对弹性体耐久性的降解效应的科学认识。该项目的开发周期包括实验工作，其次是建模，仿真，并回到实验验证。这种综合方法是科学方法的理想例证，将用于通过大学课程向K-12和少数民族学生推广。这项研究还将在这一跨学科领域培养多样化的本科生和研究生，形成美国弹性体行业在全球竞争中急需的下一代科学家。为了表征热-化学-机械老化过程中弹性体的变形响应和失效机制的演变，该项目概述了一系列相互关联的化学，形态和机械变化的实验，理论和数值研究。在工作的第一阶段，弹性体宏观结构力学性能的恶化将通过实验与其形态变化（如交联断裂/形成和键的转化）联系起来。该项目的第二阶段将开发一种数学上可验证的程序，用于将化学实验中获得的储存和耗散能量纳入热力学形式。在第三阶段，该项目旨在了解非均匀老化降解对弹性体机械响应的影响。本构方程的数值模拟将被用来验证模型对进一步的实验研究。即将获得的知识和即将开发的理论框架将导致高度耦合的基于物理学的模型，映射弹性体的宏观结构行为和故障机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Elastomers, often commonly referred to as rubbers, have a wide range of applications as bearings, sealants, tires, and anti-vibration mountings. Under such operation, elastomers are exposed to oxygen and elevated temperature, in addition to cyclic mechanical loading. Oxygen and temperature heavily degrade the materials' properties. This degradation is known as aging and induces brittle, shrunken, and aggravated surfaces. The aging process, coupled with mechanical loading, intensifies crack propagation in elastomers and reduces their serviceability. Experimental testing of aging is, necessarily, a time-consuming process. Having a theoretical framework that can be used for simulations will tremendously speed up the development of new, exciting, and reliable materials with a broader range of applications. This work will elucidate how the mechanical response of elastomers changes over their lifetime under the coupled effects of mechanical loading and aging. This research will advance the scientific knowledge of degradation effects on durability of elastomers. The development cycle of the project consists of experimental work, followed by modeling, simulation, and back to experimental verification. This combined approach, which is an ideal illustration of the scientific method, will be used for outreach to K-12 and minority students through university programs. This research will also train a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students in this interdisciplinary field, forming the next generation of scientists that the U.S. elastomer industry critically needs to compete globally. To characterize the evolution of the deformation response and failure mechanism of elastomers under thermo-chemo-mechanical aging processes, this project outlines a series of interconnected experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies of the chemical, morphological, and mechanical changes. In the first stage of work, the aggravation of macrostructural mechanical properties of elastomers will be experimentally linked to their morphological changes (such as cross-link breakage/formation, and transformation of linkages). The second stage of the project will develop a mathematically verifiable procedure for incorporating stored and dissipated energies - obtained in chemical experiments - into the thermodynamic formalism. In the third stage, the project seeks to understand the effects of heterogeneous aging degradation on the mechanical response of elastomers. Numerical simulations of the constitutive equations will be used to verify the model against further experimental studies. The to-be-obtained knowledge and to-be-developed theoretical framework will lead to highly coupled physics-based models which map the elastomers' macrostructural behavior and failure mechanisms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.