ABSTRACT
We focus in this study on a synthetic rubber filled with carbon blacks, classically used for automotive components. Table 1 gives some information on the material recipe.
1 INTRODUCTION
Rubber-like materials are extensively used in the industry due to their specific characteristics such as their ability to undergo very large deformation with nearly no permanent set and high damping properties. Elastomeric materials used in the automotive industry are usually submitted to cyclic loading. A good conception towards the fatigue properties is therefore a necessity. Several criteria for fatigue have been developed, nevertheless they remain macroscopic and a recent review underlined that the microstructure is not really accounted for and becomes a crucial need to increase the prediction capabilities of the criteria (Mars & Fatemi 2002). To understand better the fatigue mechanisms, two main techniques are usually used: micro-tomography and SEM measurements. In a recent paper (Le Saux et al. 2010), based on thermal and micro-tomography measurements, an energetic criterion opened the way to integrate the influence of the microstructure. Nevertheless, bridging the dissipated energy observed at a macroscopic scale to the energy dissipated by the basic fatigue mechanisms clearly remains a difficult challenge. The aim of this study is to improve the description of the dissipated energy at low scales
The experiments are achieved on very thin samples (0.2 mm of thickness). Therefore, surface measurements of the temperature are relevant to describe the whole volume which will ease the interpretation of the measurements. The dimensions of the sample are given on Figure 1.
