Mechanical properties and energy absorption capacity of chopped fiber reinforced natural rubber

The present study aims to investigate the effect of incorporating different fibers in an elastomeric media on its mechanical and energy absorption characteristics. To this end, newly developed compounded natural rubber was employed as the matrix and three chopped fibers including glass, carbon and Kevlar were used as the reinforcement at different weight loadings. Dynamic tensile tests revealed that while carbon and glass fibers had similar influence in reducing both strength and failure strain of the composites, Kevlar fibers contributed positively to increasing the ultimate strength. In general, energy absorption capacity of fiber reinforced rubber was observed to be less than that of neat specimens. Based on the dynamic indentation tests, incorporating fibers within the elastomeric matrix could be beneficial in small deformations owing to the more energy absorption capacity of fiber composites at the beginning of the indentation process. The optimum configuration was concluded to be 5 wt.% of carbon fibers in which the deflection-to-failure is improved whilst the energy absorption and ultimate strength remain intact.