Modeling of the heat build-up of carbon black filled rubber

Abstract Rubber is a typical viscoelastic polymer and has a low thermal conductivity. The main consequence is heat generation and leads to a temperature rise called heat build-up of the rubber material when subjected to cyclic deformation. Cylindrical carbon black (CB) filled rubber specimens were sinusoidally compressed with a Gabo Eplexor 500N dynamic mechanical analyzer, under various frequencies (10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 Hz) and dynamic strain amplitudes (1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%). A ThermaCAM SC3000 infrared camera was used to capture the surface temperatures of the specimens. To predict the influence of two main influent factors (loading strain amplitude and frequency) on the heat build-up (HBU), relations of the dynamic properties with the strain and frequency were constructed based on the Kraus and General Maxwell model, respectively. And effect of rising temperature on the loss modulus was investigated. Combine with the heat equation, an analytical method for calculating the HBU was established. The comparison between calculated results and experimental data shows that the proposed analysis method provides a satisfactory way to predict HBU for rubber compounds.