Modeling and testing of elastomer impact wear under high strain rates

Elastomers are frequently used in applications involving repeated impacts of hard abrasive particles on surfaces at high or moderate strain rates. Operational conditions of components experiencing erosive and impact type wear are sometimes difficult to mimic in laboratory conditions, and as such it is common to approach behavior and lifetime predictions by meticulously studying different types of single impacts. This is particularly true for characterizing and modeling of high strain rate impact events between hard particles and a wearing elastomer surface. In this work presents and applies such a methodology for two elastomer materials: a natural rubber (NR) and styrene-butadiene based rubber (SBR). The elastomer materials are subjected to quasi-static and dynamic testing conditions for determination of hyper- and viscoelastic material properties. The results are used in an iterative calibration procedure for establishing related constitutive models by applying the Ogden and Prony series models. In addition, post-test measurements are performed in order to develop and verify a numerical model for derivation of component wear models.