Lifetime Prediction of Rubber Materials under Simple Shear Load with Rotating Axes

Common lifetime predictions usually are made with the help of cyclic uniaxial tension tests till failure, whereby the mean value and the amplitude of the load are varied in the course of a test series. However in most rubber-applications, uniaxial tension is not the predominant deformation, so that lifetime predictions, based on equidirectional experiments in those cases inevitably lead to an error. Moreover the deformations in technical rubber products are a mixture of many different loadings which change their direction throughout the deformation process. For the decoupling on laboratory scale of modulated loads and modulated directions a new experimental rig has been developed which enables lifetime investigations under simple shear loads with rotating axes.