Department Elastomer Physics (EP)

The department “Elastomer Physics” was established in 1988 by Dr. Thomas Alshuth and is actually managed by Dr. Jens Meier. The research priorities have been continuously adapted to current state of technology and the needs of industry. Currently, working priorities are crack propagation and fatigue mechanics, fatigue and life time prediction of components as well as contact mechanics and friction. In the near future, processing simulations will be added. The necessary experimental methods for the characterization of materials, such as dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), in the high frequency range (ultrasound) too, or microscopic and tomography methods are partly own developments and complement very well state of the art standard procedures. One of the key strengths of this department is to developed test methods, matching the specific needs of our customers, since quite often, standards are not yet specified or are not appropriate. Another focus is the development and production of anisotropic elastomers, especially magnetorheological adaptive elastomers and their characterization.

Head of department

Dr. Jens Meier

Phone: +49 511 84201-28

Contact

Publications at the DIK

Curriculum vitae

Main research topics

  • Lifetime prediction of compounds unter dynamic load
  • Fracture mechanics and fatigue
  • Contact mechanics and friction
  • Special investigations of material homogeneity with X-ray tomography (CT)
  • Acoustic damping and friction properties
  • Dynamical mechanical properties up to high frequencies
  • Magnetorheological elastomers for sensor technology and adaptive systems
  • Mold filling simulations

Lifetime prediction

  • Crack propagation experiments and facture mechanics
  • Fatigue tests, estimation of Wöhler (S-N) curves
  • Unification of fracture mechanics and Wöhler (S-N) concept
  • Statistical influence of material defects on the lifetime
  • Prediction of failure distributions

 

Contact mechanics and friction

  • Development of experimental methods for better prediction of friction
  • Investigation of local deformations with defied asperities
  • Investigation of the influence of the roughness and the surface energy of the friction partners
  • FE–Simulations – calculation of friction processes

Computertomographie

  • Investigation of fatigue mechanisms
  • Micro dispersion of fillers, defects analysis
  • Investigation of the location of reinforcing materials, orientation of fibers
  • Characterization of particle and pore distributions, orientation effects

Dynamic mechanical analysis

  • Temperature sweep
  • Frequency sweep
  • Strain sweep
  • Tailored acoustic, damping and friction properties
  • Viscoelastic properties in the high frequency range (MHz) using ultrasonic spectrometer