Rubber Doesn't Behave Like Most Engineering Materials, and Modelling It Reflects That

Most engineering materials play by relatively predictable rules. Rubber does not. It resists compression almost entirely, its stress strain curve bends sharply away from linear, and depending on loading history and temperature, it can show hysteresis, damage, creep, or stress relaxation on top of all that. Get the material model wrong here and the error isn't small, the results can point in the wrong direction entirely. Abaqus provides an extensive set of material models built for exactly this behavior, but which one to pick, and how to calibrate it, comes down almost entirely to what test data you have on hand.

Webinar Scope

This online training walks through modelling solid rubber and rubber foams in Abaqus, starting from the underlying material behavior and working through to selecting and calibrating a hyperelastic or viscoelastic model. You'll see how available test data shapes model selection, how time and temperature dependent effects get accounted for, and how Abaqus tools support calibrating a model directly against test data.

Topics Covered

• What drives rubber's behavior: cross linking, near incompressibility, hysteresis, and damage

• Hyperelasticity fundamentals and strain energy density functions

• Choosing between Neo-Hookean, Yeoh, Marlow, Ogden, and other hyperelastic models based on available test data

• Why uniaxial testing alone isn't enough: planar and equiaxial deformation modes explained

• Modelling rubber foams and their distinct compressibility behavior

• Viscoelastic effects: creep, stress relaxation, hysteresis, and damping

• Linear versus nonlinear viscoelasticity, and representing it with a Prony series

• Time temperature correspondence and the WLF shift function

• Calibrating material models in Abaqus/CAE with the Material Calibration App

Who Should Attend?

• Simulation engineers modelling rubber, elastomer, or foam components

• Analysts working on seals, gaskets, bushings, mounts, or tires

• Engineers with test data who need to select and calibrate the right material model

• Anyone whose rubber simulation results haven't matched physical test behavior

Prerequisite

• 12Simulate Abaqus customer