Abstract

Evaluating service lives of rubber materials at certain temperatures requires a destructive method (typically using elongation at break). In this study, a non-destructive method based on hardness change rate was proposed for evaluating the service life of chloroprene rubber (CR). Compared to the destructive method, this non-destructive method ensures homogeneity of CR specimens and requires a small number of samples. Thermal accelerated degradation test was conducted on the CR specimens at 55, 70, 85, 100, and 125°C, and the tensile strength, elongation at break, and hardness were measured. The results of the experiment were compared to those of the accelerated life evaluation method proposed in this study. Comparing the analyzed lives in the high temperature region (70, 85, 100, and 125°C), the difference between the service lives for the destructive method (using the elongation at break) and non-destructive method (using the hardness) was approximately 0.1 year. Therefore, it was confirmed that the proposed non-destructive evaluation method based on hardness changes can evaluate the actual life of CR under thermally accelerated degradation conditions.

Keywords: thermal accelerated degradation test;arrhenius life-stress model;non-destructive method;hardness;elongation at break