ABSTRACT
Rubber materials are used in automotive parts such as tires and gaskets. For the developement of these complex parts the use of simulation tools and therefore an appropriate model of such materials is necessary. The most assemblies are composed of a solid rubber part and a porous rubber part, both carbon black-filled. For the simulation of these complex assemblies, a material model for both kinds of rubbers is required. Porous rubber materials are often called cellular rubber. The investigated cellular rubber is a mixed open-and closed-cell foamed rubber enclosed by a moulding skin. Its mechanical and thermical properties are not yet fully characterized, so research pays a particular attention on it. A worldwide overview on the application of cellular rubber used as gasket in automotive engineering is given by Vroomen, (Vroomen, Choonoo, Odenhamn, and Hatta 2004). Summarizing no correlation between results from experiments on dogbone specimens and the practically applied parts exists for cellular rubber. Therefore an adequate model for cellular rubber does not exist, although there are many material models for incompressible rubber materials.
