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Technical Articles, Papers, and Presentations

1. Testing Elastomers, Soft Biological Tissues and Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPEs) for Hyperelastic Material Models in Finite Element Analysis.

This short paper provides information on the experimental material testing and calibration required to generate the hyperelastic material constants for characterizing non-linear materials.

2. Measuring the Viscoelastic Dynamic Properties of Elastomers and Polymers for Product Development and Failure Analysis

This paper provides introduction to the dynamic properties of polymer materials, and the testing procedures carried out to study the materials.

3. Mechanical Characterization Testing of Thermoplastics and Composite Materials

This article provides information on the different tests, their setup and procedures to fully characterize thermoplastic and composite materials.

4. High Strain Rate Testing of Polymers, Thermoplastics, and Thermoset Materials

Polymers, composites and some metallic materials are viscoelastic and strain-rate sensitive. Under high strain rates the micro mechanisms by which these materials deform is different than that experienced at low strain rates.

5. Hyperelastic and Viscoelastic Characterization of Polymers and Rubber Materials

Hyperelasticity represents the rate-independent response of materials at low strain rates, while Viscoelasticity is the property of materials that exhibit both viscous, elastic, rate and time dependent characteristics. This short book provides a detailed information on the involved material testing, theoretical framework and application in Finite Element Analysis (FEA).

6. Hyperelastic Material Models In Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Of Polymer And Rubber Components

This paper provides information on different material models available to define hyperelasticity like Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden, Yeoh, Arruda-Boyce etc.

7. Failure Analysis of Polymer and Rubber Materials

Understanding the actual reason for failures is absolutely required to avoid recurrence and prevent failure in similar components, systems, structures or products. The analysis should also help with the understanding and improvement of design, materials selection, and manufacturing techniques.

8. Stress Relaxation and Creep of Polymers and Composite Materials

There are two physical mechanisms by which the amount of plastic strain increases over time, 1) Stress relaxation and 2) Creep. Creep is an increase in plastic strain under constant force, while in the case of Stress relaxation; it is a steady decrease in force under constant applied deformation or strain.

9. Service Life Prediction Of Polymer Rubber Components Using Accelerated Aging And Arrhenius Equation

One of the most widely used techniques to predict lifetimes of polymeric materials is the use of Arrhenius equation. The technique utilizes accelerated thermal aging of the materials under controlled conditions. Failure times and degradation rate studies are carried out at elevated temperatures and the data is used to extrapolate material performance to ambient conditions. Arrhenius extrapolations assume that a chemical degradation process is controlled by a reaction rate.

10. Instruments for Dynamic Testing of Viscoelastic Polymer Materials

There are five (5) main classes of experiments for measurement of viscoelastic behaviour
1. Transient measurements: creep and stress relaxation
2. Low frequency vibrations: free oscillations methods
3. High frequency vibrations: resonance methods
4. Forced vibration non-resonance methods
5. Wave propagation methods

11. Verifications and Validations in Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

Verification procedure includes checking the design, the software code and also investigate if the computational model accurately represents the physical system. Validation is more of a dynamic procedure and determines if the computational simulation agrees with the physical phenomenon, it examines the difference between the numerical simulation and the experimental testing results.

12. Static and Dynamic Testing of Materials and Components

Testing of materials and products involves mechanical loading of a material specimen or product up to a pre-determined deformation level or up to the point where the sample fails.

13. Mechanical Testing of 3D Printed Parts and Materials, Strength Characterization and Performance Prediction

ASTM and ISO testing methods are used to test the properties of 3d printed polymers. Standards followed for conducting tensile, flexural, impact, fatigue and compression tests on FDM based polymers and composites.

14. Design Development And Rapid Prototying Of Rubber & Elastomer Components Using FEA

Design Development and Rapid Prototyping calls for use of superior techniques with high accuracy in Finite Element Analysis. This makes for an imperative case for accurate representation of material properties and representation of accurate physics taking place in the system.

15. Mechanical Testing Of Composite Materials: Test Methods & Challenges

Composite materials have revolutionized the automotive, aerospace, and allied industries offering superior strength-to-weight ratios, corrosion resistance, and flexibility in design. To ensure safety and performance, these materials must undergo rigorous mechanical characterization testing. This white paper explores the importance, methods, and challenges of mechanical testing of composite materials.

16. Why It Is Not Correct to Compare Your Storage/Loss Modulus and Phase/Tan Delta Results Across Different Test Machines: The Apples-to-Oranges Trap

This article explains why directly comparing viscoelastic properties (storage modulus, loss modulus, tan δ, phase angle) across different machines is misleading, reviews what actually is being measured (and what isn’t), and suggests how you can move toward correlation rather than naive comparison.

17. Hyperelastic Curve-Fitting for Generating Material Constants: A Practitioner’s Guide

Hyperelastic constitutive models underpin the finite element simulation of rubbers, elastomers, biological tissues, and other soft materials that undergo large, reversible deformations. Translating experimental stress-strain measurements into usable material constants requires solving a nonlinear inverse problem whose practical difficulty is often underestimated. Poorly calibrated constants degrade simulation accuracy; unstable parameters can prevent solver convergence entirely. This article provides a self-contained treatment of the hyperelastic curve-fitting process aimed at the practicing engineer and researche r.