A comparison of viscoelastic behavior of engineering elastomers under different stress and temperature

In this work, a comparison of the viscoelastic creep behavior of five engineering elastomers (Ethylene-Propylene-Diene Monomer, Flouroelastomer, nitrile butadiene rubber, silicon rubber and neoprene/chloroprene rubber) is presented. Creep tests at different stress levels and temperatures were conducted using a “home-built” creep test device. A commercial equipment of Digital Image Correlation technique was implemented for the measurement of the time-dependent strains. The linear viscoelastic behavior regimes were determined by evaluating the creep compliance for each stress and temperature condition. Then, the creep curves obtained were fitted to a characteristic creep model, enabling the calculation of the viscoelastic parameters of each material. It was observed that the tested elastomers exhibited different elastic and viscous parameters, which were found to decrease with temperature. Particularly, it was observed that silicon rubber showed large instantaneous (elastic) strain and a small viscous deformation, whereas the Flouroelastomer rubber exhibited moderate strain curves, even at very high temperatures (100 °C and 120 °C), showing the highest creep resistance and the wider regime of linear viscoelastic behavior.