The Variation with Temperature of the Dynamic Properties of Rubber and Synthetic Rubberlike Materials
Abstract (1) Over the range from 5° to 40° C, the temperature coefficients of the dynamic compression moduli of all the rubber and rubberlike materials studied are negative and fall numerically with increasing temperature. (2) The highest numerical value of this coefficient for natural rubber is −2.7×10−3 per ° C. Neoprene-Gn has a coefficient 3 to 4 times this value and Buna-S about 5 times. Hycar OR-15 shows the highest coefficient of −1.3×10−1 per ° C from 10 to 20° C, the value changing sharply at 20.2° C to −0.14×10−1, which is maintained up to 40° C. (3) Results for Neoprene-E were not reproducible, owing to a type of slow freezing effect. (4) In all cases but Thiokol-RD resilience tended to increase with increasing temperature throughout the range. (5) Resilience-temperature curves for natural rubber, Neoprene-GN, Neoprene-YD, and Buna-S take the form of straight lines intersecting at 20° to 22.5° C. Neoprene-Z shows a similar effect with intersection at 30.5° C. and Hycar OR-15 similarly at 31.5° C. (6) Copolymers of butadiene and acrylonitrile show increasing modulustemperature coefficient, and in the region 10° to 20° C decreasing resilience with increasing acrylonitrile content. The resilience-temperature diagrams for these polymers, except Hycar OR-15, are smooth curves which appear to reach steady values towards the upper end of the temperature range. (7) Thiokol-RD appears to have a freezing-point, under the dynamic conditions employed, somewhere in the region of 15–20° C; there is evidence that Hycar OR-15 shows a similar effect between 0° and 10° C. (8) The relationships enumerated above refer to basic compounds of the various materials. How far the temperature effects may be reduced or modified by suitable compounding is the subject of continuing investigation.