| Summary: | Failure in hard neoprene can be a very serious occurrence in industry. Since the
material is resistant to oils, it is a popular choice for O-rings and hoses for use in
fuel and oil lines. Notable elastomer failures include that of the Challenger space
shuttle's O-rings and the (TM)Firestone tires incident. Since elastomers are such
a large part of daily life with a wide variety of uses, quantifying failure in these
materials can mean the di erence between life and death, not just an inconvenient
nuisance.
It is desirable to not only determine the experimental failure properties of elastomer
materials, but also to be able to use nite element analysis (FEA) to predict
the behavior and failure of elastomers. In a world where engineering designs are
becoming increasingly progressive and complex, engineers and scientists are relying
more and more on FEA to predict the safety level of products. It is of utmost importance
to ensure that the physical behavior of elastomers is successfully captured
in FEA.
|
|---|
