Filler-reinforced rubber under transient and cyclic loadings: Constitutive modeling and FEM-implementation for time domain simulations

On the basis of comprehensive experimental data, an amplitude dependent constitutive model of finite viscoelasticity based on a rheological Maxwell-chain with process-dependent state variables is developed. The formulation of this thermodynamically consistent model is possible in both the time and the frequency domain. This property is very profitable in the material-parameter identification process for FEM simulations of real parts. This kind of model allows transient FEM simulations of various rubber parts under arbitrary cyclic loading processes. Due to physical and geometrical nonlinearities, these simulations are not possible in the frequency domain. Numerical examples are computed in the context of the transient material behaviour. To this end, deformation processes with dynamic amplitude-changes are prescribed.