Micromechanical mechanism of reinforcement and losses in filled rubbers

The use of micromechanical mechanism of reinforcement and losses in filled rubber in applications such as automotive tires and vibration mounts was investigated. The filled rubbers were composed of elastomer matrixes reinforced by agglomerating nanosized carbon black or silica particles. A finite element method is used to explain the relationship between reinforcement and losses observed in filled rubbers micromechanically through networking filler particles joined by coating layers of immobilized rubber and realizing storage and dissipation energies to be strongly localized in these coating layers. It was found that the universality of the Payne effect does not depend on the polymeric nature of the matrix medium supports the micromechanical mechanism of the reinforcement and energy dissipation. A remarkable localization of storage and dissipation energy that occurs primarily in the coating layers of immobilized polymer is also observed.