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FOR 597:  Fracture Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics of Reinforced Elastomer Blends

Subject Area Chemistry
Term from 2005 to 2014
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 13043700
 
Technical elastomers are highly filled, cross-linked and topologically entangled polymer blends. Due to their tuneable elastic and viscous properties, these systems are widely used in industry and technology, for example in tires, power engines and printing rollers. Dynamical operation conditions put extremely high demands on performance and stability of these materials. The required long lifetime is usually decreased due to material damage in result of wear processes such as abrasion and wear fatigue, mostly caused by crack formation and crack propagation.
The project covers structural aspects of filled heterogeneous polymer networks in the length scale from nanometers to micrometers and connects these aspects with the constitutive macroscopic properties of elastomers. The ultimate goal is to obtain reliable lifetime and durability predictions. The use of new fracture-mechanical and material-theoretical methods in combination with numerical structure-mechanical simulations allows a realistic description of complex geometry and loading conditions.
The multiscale research concept represents an ambitious interdisciplinary challenge on the frontier between the fundamental and engineer science. A constellation of the scientists involved in the project favours the joint studies, i.e. working out of fundamentals and strategies for transfer onto technical applications at the interface between engineering and natural science (especially physics). The five research teams are spread all over the country: one is situated in the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research in Dresden, the second in the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, the third in the Halle-Wittenberg University, the fourth in the Leipzig University, and the fifth in the German Institute for Rubber Technology in Hannover.
The Research Unit sees itself as an initiator and catalyst of a wide research network for the polymer and elastomer materials. So, there are close connections with a research group on elastomer friction at the Hannover University and with a new project NanoElastomer being a part of the BMBF founded leading innovation NanoMobil , the aim of which is the exploration and utilisation of nanotechnology in automotive applications.
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