An analysis on enhancement of fatigue durability of polyurethane by incorporating organoclay nanofillers

One of the important applications of PUEs is as damping materials such as the spring aids used in cars, which need to have excellent cyclic fatigue durability. Our results show that the fatigue durability of PUE can be significantly improved by incorporating organoclay. The best result was obtained for 3 wt.-% organoclay, and the fatigue durability of the PUE-organoclay nanocomposites was increased on an average to about ten times that of pure PUE. The addition of organoclay resulted in a reduction in the size of hard-segment domains. The organoclay nanoplatelets show reversible deformation behaviour during a fatigue test confirmed by WAXD and computer simulation. These could benefit in stopping crack propagation, releasing concentrated stress and giving rise to fatigue resistance.