Reinforced elastomers for dynamic applications: from non-linearities to Physics understanding

Filled elastomers are materials with unic properties, and are now used in applications such as anti-vibratory systems. However, there is still debates about the Physics involved in the behaviour of the materials. A remaining question is the dependence of viscoelastic modulus upon the deformation amplitude, known as Payne effect.

Most of the community converged on the model of glassy bridges [1]: the mechanical properties of filled elastomers are due to the behaviour of polymer between filler nanoparticles, which acquire a higher Tg than in the bulk.

In order to understand the behaviour of this material, we analyzed it with the tools that have been developed for the understanding of classical Payne effect: viscoelastic modelling of glassy bridges [1] and plasticization dynamic [2].

We specially focused on thebehaviour of one bridge with stress-softening and strain hardening. This led to a new understanding of these non-linearity and show how the limited extensibility can be seen in the Payne effect analysis.

[1] R.J. Masurel and al., “Role of Dynamical Heterogeneities on the Mechanical Response of Confined Polymer”, PRL, 118 (2017)
[2] D. R. Long and al., “Dynamics in glassy polymers: The Eyring model revisited”, Phys. Rev. Mat., 2 (2018)