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1. Testing Elastomers, Soft Biological Tissues and Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPEs) for Hyperelastic Material Models in Finite Element Analysis.  

• This short paper provides information on the experimental material testing and calibration required to generate the hyperelastic material constants for characterizing non-linear materials.

2. Measuring the Viscoelastic Dynamic Properties of Elastomers and Polymers for Product Development and Failure Analysis

• This paper provides introduction to the dynamic properties of polymer materials, and the testing procedures carried out to study the materials.

3. Mechanical Characterization Testing of Thermoplastics and Composite Materials 

• This article provides information on the different tests, their setup and procedures to fully characterize thermoplastic and composite materials. 

4. High Strain Rate Testing of Polymers, Thermoplastics, and Thermoset Materials

• Polymers, composites and some metallic materials are viscoelastic and strain-rate sensitive. Under high strain rates the micro mechanisms by which these materials deform is different than that experienced at low strain rates.

5. Hyperelastic and Viscoelastic Characterization of Polymers and Rubber Materials

• Hyperelasticity represents the rate-independent response of materials at low strain rates, while Viscoelasticity is the property of materials that exhibit both viscous, elastic, rate and time dependent characteristics. This short book provides a detailed information on the involved material testing, theoretical framework and application in  Finite Element Analysis (FEA). 

6. Hyperelastic Material Models In Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Of Polymer And Rubber Components

• This paper provides information on different material models available to define hyperelasticity like Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden, Yeoh, Arruda-Boyce etc.

7. Failure Analysis of Polymer and Rubber Materials 

• Understanding the actual reason for failures is absolutely required to avoid recurrence and prevent failure in similar components, systems, structures or products. The analysis should also help with the understanding and improvement of design, materials selection, and manufacturing techniques.

8. Stress Relaxation and Creep of Polymers and Composite Materials

• There are two physical mechanisms by which the amount of plastic strain increases over time, 1) Stress relaxation and 2) Creep. Creep is an increase in plastic strain under constant force, while in the case of Stress relaxation; it is a steady decrease in force under constant applied deformation or strain.

9. Service Life Prediction Of Polymer Rubber Components Using Accelerated Aging And Arrhenius Equation

• One of the most widely used techniques to predict lifetimes of polymeric materials is the use of Arrhenius equation. The technique utilizes accelerated thermal aging of the materials under controlled conditions. Failure times and degradation rate studies are carried out at elevated temperatures and the data is used to extrapolate material performance to ambient conditions. Arrhenius extrapolations assume that a chemical degradation process is controlled by a reaction rate.

10. Instruments for Dynamic Testing of Viscoelastic Polymer Materials 

• There are five (5) main classes of experiments for measurement of viscoelastic behaviour
• 1. Transient measurements: creep and stress relaxation
• 2. Low frequency vibrations: free oscillations methods
• 3. High frequency vibrations: resonance methods
• 4. Forced vibration non-resonance methods
• 5. Wave propagation methods