Constitutive Model for Investigating the Effect of Microstructure Evolution on the Macroscopic Properties of Silicone Rubber during Radiation Aging

作者：Zhaoqun Shao, Hong Cheng, Min Zhu, Yang Yang, Longjin Huang, Shichun Li, Xueyan Zhao, Chunhua Zhu, Yu Liu · 发表于：Macromolecules · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/acs.macromol.4c03245 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Polymer Nanocomposites and Properties、Elasticity and Material Modeling、Structural Analysis of Composite Materials

During the service in the aerospace and nuclear power fields, the performance of silicone rubber will degrade due to the influence of radiation. However, the mechanism of radiation aging of filled silicone rubber is still unclear, especially the effect of its microstructure evolution on macroscopic properties during radiation aging. In this work, the effects of the microstructure evolution on the macroscopic properties of filled rubber during radiation aging were studied by a constitutive model. The variation of cross-linking density with radiation dose was characterized by the ammonia-modified equilibrium swelling method and divided into physical cross-linking density and chemical cross-linking density. It was found that the physical cross-linking density has an exponential relationship with radiation dose (charging model). Meanwhile, the interface layer content was identified through low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and was found to be proportional to the physical adsorption strength and can also be fitted using the “charging model”. To accurately reproduce the tensile behavior of filled rubber and correlate its microscopic evolution with macroscopic properties, an extended Arruda–Boyce model is proposed. This model comprehensively considers the effects of changes in chemical cross-linking density and interface content on the stress–strain curve, successfully linking the changes in microstructure and macroscopic properties during radiation aging. This work will contribu...