Invited Speaker

Abstract: The temperature influence and carbon black reinforcement effect on the mechanical behavior of uncured rubber were investigated through cyclic tensile tests at different strain rates. Experimentally, the stress-strain responses under different loading scenarios were achieved. These results indicate the distinct deformation characteristics of uncured rubber (initial modulus, stress level at a certain stretch, hysteresis and Mullins effect) are significantly dependent on carbon black content and temperature. An interpretation of the underlying physical mechanism of uncured carbon black filled rubber is proposed, which is similar to that of vulcanized rubber. Based on this interpretation, a microscopic thermo-mechanical constitutive model is developed to characterize the complex nonlinear mechanics of uncured rubber material. The prediction ability of this new model was evaluated by comparison with data issued from different cases of carbon black contents and strain rates. This work would be beneficial for gaining a more comprehensive understanding on the service property or manufacturing performance of various rubber products.

Biography: Xu Li is an associate professor (from 2015 to present) in the Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science at Wuhan University of Technology, China. He received his BS (2005) in civil engineering from Shanghai University, MS (2008) & PhD (2018) in solid mechanics from University of Science and Technology of China. Besides, he worked one year as a visiting scholar in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of California San Diego, USA, during 2017-2018.

Prof. Li’s research interests mainly focus on the large deformation behavior and multiscale mechanics of soft smart composites or materials, for example rubber elastomer, hydrogel and shape memory alloy. He has undertaken and finished several research projects funded by Chinese government and industry, which concerns with performance prediction and property analysis of particle filled tire rubbers, characterization on mechanical adhesion between alloy wire and hyper-elastic elastomer, structural simulation and reliable evaluation on various polymeric composite products, etc. He has published more than 20 papers in journals such as Mechanics of Materials, Polymer Testing, Rubber Chemistry and Technology, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Computational Materials Sciences, and so on.