Micromechanical Modeling of Large Deformation in Sepiolite Reinforced Rubber Sealing Composites Under Transverse Tension

This article presents an experimental and numerical study on mechanical behavior of sepiolite reinforced rubber sealing composites (SRRC), which are subjected to the transverse tensile loads. A finite element model of composites with fibers in square and random distribution is adopted for the numerical study. The representative volume elements with different fiber volume fraction are established and analyzed. A successive remeshing strategy is employed to achieve the large deformation of SRRC. The results show that the tensile strength and breaking elongation of SRRC can be improved by addition of sepiolite fiber, and they reach a maximum at 42% fiber volume fraction. The stressstrain curve of SRRC with fibers in the random distribution agrees well with that measured in the experiments. However, there exists a significant difference between experimental and numerical results as fiber volume fraction increases. (C) 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers