NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE HARDNESS OF TIRE RUBBER MATERIAL BY INDENTATION METHOD
B. Setiyana, C. Prabowo, J. Jamari, R. Ismail, S. Sugiyanto and E. Saputra
Laboratory for Engineering Design and Tribology,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Diponegoro,
Jl. Prof. Soedharto SH, Tembalang, Semarang 59275, Indonesia
Abstract
Hardness is an important mechanical property to express the rubber materials properties. The hardness is closely related to elastic modulus value that is usually obtained by indentation technique. In elastic modulus investigation, the indentation method is more practical to be applied than tensile test method. Analytically, due to the hyper-elastic and non-linear nature of rubber material, theoretical discussion about the rubber properties is difficult to be performed, therefore a numerical method is applied. This paper discusses the investigation of the elastic modulus of tire rubber specimens by indentation method numerically and compares to the tensile test method experimentally. Analysis was carried out by Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and two types rubber materials were analysed that were often called as hard compound and soft compound, in the form of vulcanized rubber commonly used for tires. Indentation modelling was carried out to comply the standards determined by ASTM D 1415-88. Mooney-Rivlin model for Strain Energy Function (SEF) was applied to describe the material-s behaviour. The analysis shows that the results of the indentation method are close to the results of the tensile test method.
Keywords: elastic modulus, hardness, indentation, rubber
Topic: Mechanical Engineering