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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Evaluating Rubber Aging On Tire Durability: Quantitative Evaluation Of Rubber Aging, Brian Auffenberg
Evaluating Rubber Aging On Tire Durability: Quantitative Evaluation Of Rubber Aging, Brian Auffenberg
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
Rubber is considered one of the most important polymers in the world due to its variety of uses. There are many different conditions that can affect the useful life of rubber. The purpose of this research was to determine how the mechanical loading on the rubber may affect the aging of the rubber. The scope of the project was to focus on the rubber used for tire production. The research was limited to focusing only on rubber supplied by industry mentors which was styrene-butadiene rubber. By varying the length of time for testing as well as the temperature of the …
Impact Of Chain Architecture On The Thickness Dependence Of Physical Aging Rate Of Thin Polystyrene Films, Gregory Brown, Elizabeth Lewis, Bryan D. Vogt
Impact Of Chain Architecture On The Thickness Dependence Of Physical Aging Rate Of Thin Polystyrene Films, Gregory Brown, Elizabeth Lewis, Bryan D. Vogt
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
The dynamics of polymer thin films have been demonstrated to be significantly altered from the bulk, but the origins of such differences are not well defined. In this work, we seek to understand the differences in the structural dynamics (or physical aging) of polystyrene (PS) through branching and other well defined architectures (comb and centipede). The aging dynamics of ultrathin films (< 30 nm) differ from relatively thick films (100-150nm) with linear PS thin films aging more rapidly than the relatively “bulk-like” thick films. Ellipsometric measurements are used to characterize the physical aging rate of the films. The change in film thickness and refractive index as the films are held below the glass transition temperature (Tg) provides a simple measure of the physical aging. In this study, four different architectures (linear, comb, 4 arm star, and centipede) will be investigated. For each PS architecture, the aging rate will be determined for film …