pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S07 - Elastomer Materials and Processing
Keynote Presentation
 
 

Challenges in Rubber Processing: Learning from Game Theory and Complex Systems

Heinrich Gert (1)*, Stöckelhuber Klaus Werner (1), Wiessner Sven (1), Das Amit (1)

(1) Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V. - Saxony - Germany

The performance of elastomeric materials, i.e. in car tires, is substantially determined by the used reinforcing filler system. Especially, the flocculation tendency of filler particles to form clusters and even network-like structures is significantly determining the mechanical properties of these elastomer materials and enhances especially their energy dissipation under periodic mechanical deformations. The industrial and even economic impact of the above discussed re-agglomeration of dispersed filler particles was even drastically grown when the tire industry has introduced the so-called “green tire technology” 20 years ago, i.e. the filler system in the tread compounds for high-performance passenger car tires was changed from carbon black to silica. Several technical challenges, e.g. the introduction of the tandem mixing approach, will be briefly mentioned only. Instead, we will demonstrate how several approaches and ideas from the science of complex systems help us to understand basic features of mixing highly filled rubbers. For example, it is well-known that successive iterations of the Baker transformation as a specific feature of complex systems is reflecting the filler fragmentation and, finally, the state of dispersion as a result of the mixing process. It is interesting to note that very recently Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI), Japan, demonstrated within their Advanced 4D Nano Design tool how the large-scale quantitative visualization of filler dispersion for further analysis and simulation of rubbers is realized successfully when using cutting-edge experimental facilities. In a simplified thermodynamic model, inspired by a segregation model from game theory, we describe fundamental mechanisms of filler structures formation in a polymer matrix as a result of the mixing process. We demonstrate how similar structures in society, nature or materials like rubbers emerge when supposing obvious cardinal mechanisms of structure formation in complex systems. The filler flocculation phenomenon itself is discussed with a simple kinetic model of autonomous (but forced by restrictions) saturation in an aggregated growth process which reflects the role of compl