Simulation of rubber, foams and rubber/metal parts
Consulting services
More than 20 years in the rubber industry (Hutchinson Argentina and Hutchinson Brazil, in charge of testing laboratory and product design areas) allow us to offer support for:
• Design of rubber and rubber/metal parts from samples, drawings or product specifications.
• Correct definition of materials based on use and specifications.
• Advice for the interpretation of plans, specifications and tests.
• Design of test devices (static, dynamic, fatigue, creep, rupture characterization...)
• Advice for the selection, purchase and correct use of test equipment.
• Characterization of their own rubber compounds for subsequent simulation.
Simulation (analysis) by finite elements
The simulation of rubber or rubber parts is a useful and essential tool that allows the engineer to study their behavior and find out if, under the possible operating scenarios, the provided design guarantees optimum performance.
Predicting the performance of rubber parts can be useful for:
• Savings in expensive prototypes and lengthy tests.
• Location of possible places of failure during use
• Prediction of stiffness and deformation curves under load for technical parts.
• Predict and optimize contact zones
Meshing
All good analysis requires an adequate mesh. The geometric characteristics and large displacements and contacts present in the rubber pieces require meshing with hexahedral elements, in order to be able to control exactly the distribution and quality of the elements in the areas that require it. In this way the results of the simulation will have a high degree of correlation with reality.
Materials
Rubber compounds exhibit a highly non-linear behavior, called hyperelastic. There are several mathematical models that allow to accurately approximate this complex behavior, such as Neo-Hooke, Mooney Rivlin, Yeoh and others that can be incorporated into the model, as well as foamed materials (hyperfoam) such as polyurethane foams or EPDM.
We offer support in characterizing your own materials for the most accurate result
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Boundary conditions
Pressures, forces, contacts, symmetries, molding temperatures, all can and should be incorporated into the model, either instantaneously or time-varying (non-linear). Analysis with multiple load stages, preloads, contractions, assembly efforts, all of them are considered for an accurate representation of the behavior of the part.
Results
Real experience in the metier (more than 20 years working in the industry, several registered patents...), not only working in the field of simulation but also in physical tests, allow to obtain an excellent correlation between simulation and final physical result.