Patent ID: 9097697
Filing Date: 2015-08-04
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for simulating deformation of rubber compound including a rubber component, silica particles and an interfacial coupling agent for coupling the silica particles with the rubber component, comprising: a STEM image acquiring step of acquiring, by the use of a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), data of STEM images of the rubber compound; a three-dimensional structure reconstruction step of reconstructing, based on the data of the STEM images, a dataset of a three-dimensional structure of the rubber compound; a finite element model generating step of generating, based on the dataset of the three-dimensional structure of the rubber compound, a finite element model of the rubber compound; a deformation calculation step of making a deformation calculation by the use of the finite element model of the rubber compound on which conditions are defined; and a step of acquiring a physical quantity through the deformation calculation, wherein the finite element model generating step comprises the steps of: wherein the physical property of the interface model is determined by the steps of: preparing a first unvulcanized rubber compound having the same composition as that of said rubber compound as an analysis object and a second unvulcanized rubber compound having a composition same as the first unvulcanized rubber compound except that the interfacial coupling agent is eliminated; immersing each of the first and second unvulcanized rubber compounds in solvent to remove the rubber component and thereby to obtain residue; determining the difference between a peak temperature T preparing a basic vulcanized rubber compound having a composition same as the first unvulcanized rubber compound except that the silica particles are eliminated, and plural kinds of vulcanized rubber compounds which are the same as the basic vulcanized rubber compound but different in a crosslink density from each other and from the basic vulcanized rubber compound; measuring a peak temperature of the loss tangent of each of the vulcanized rubber compounds, which are the basic vulcanized rubber compound and said plural kinds of vulcanized rubber compounds; obtaining, from the measured peak temperature and the crosslink density of each of the vulcanized rubber compounds which are said basic vulcanized rubber compound and said plural kinds of vulcanized rubber compounds, a relationship between the peak temperature of the loss tangent and the crosslink density; finding, from the obtained relationship, the crosslink density when the peak temperature of the loss tangent is equal to the sum of the difference |T measuring the physical property of a vulcanized rubber compound having the found crosslink density and defining the physical property for the interface model.