Viscoelastic Characterization of Sealant Materials

Published

September 18, 2002

Author(s)

Donald L. Hunston, Christopher C. White

Abstract

Polymeric sealants are an important example of a major consumer product where the performance depends critically on rheological properties. The work here developed a testing and modeling procedure to characterize the basic mechanical properties of sealant materials and demonstrated the procedure on 5 different samples. These materials span the range of properties found in commercial sealants. All of the materials tested exhibited the Mullins effect, and stress-strain tests were used to characterize this behavior. The non-linear viscoelastic properties were then examined with stress-relaxation experiments. Although the behavior is rather complex, the time dependence and strain dependence were shown to be relatively independent which greatly simplified modeling and characterization.. An important application of this characterization procedure is to follow changes that occur in a sealant when it is exposed to environmental conditions, and this is an important step toward developing life prediction models.

Citation

Society of Adhesion

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

characterization, methodology, modulus, sealant, service life prediction, stress-strain, viscoelastic

Citation

Hunston, D. and White, C. (2002), Viscoelastic Characterization of Sealant Materials, Society of Adhesion (Accessed February 13, 2026)