Degradation and life prediction of a natural rubber engine mount compound

To assess and predict the functional life of a natural rubber engine mount compound, the mechanical property changes were determined under accelerated aging conditions. The rubber was aged at temperatures ranging from 70 to 110°C for times ranging from 1 h to 5 weeks. Tensile and fatigue measurements were used to characterize the aging trends and mechanisms of the engine mount compound. With the time–temperature superposition approach, the activation energy was found to be about 98 kJ/mol for the elongation at break, 93 kJ/mol for the tensile strength, and 60 kJ/mol for the fatigue life. The tensile strength after aging for 13 weeks at 50°C was predicted to be 18.73 MPa, which was very close to the experimental value of 19.04 ± 2.25 MPa. With a 50% reduction in the tensile strength used as the failure criterion, it was predicted that the tensile strength of the engine mount compound would take 80 days to decrease by 50% at 70°C. At 23°C, it would last approximately 140 times (31 years) its lifetime at 70°C. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008