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The behaviour of natural rubber (NR) compounds under mechanical stress is often reported in literature. An important and widely discussed effect that occurs is the Mullins effect. During the first loading cycles in a tensile test for example, a stress-softening effect is observed. This and other effects on the mechanical behaviour are investigated for different rubber materials with and without different types of fillers and filler contents. Besides, the hydrostatic compression behaviour is affected by the type and content of filler as well, which is shown for an NR with and without waxes and different contents of carbon black (CB) in this contribution. In contrast to the Mullins effect, there is no dependence of the number of loading cycles on the volumetric behaviour determined in hydrostatic compression tests. Furthermore, the influence of the previous stress-softening due to mechanical stress on the compression behaviour is elaborated. Cyclic uniaxial tensile tests are performed to realize the stress-softening in the rubber materials. The subsequent compression tests are compared to compression tests without any pre-stretching to determine the influence of previous mechanical loading on the compression behaviour of natural rubber with different filler contents.

Finite-Element (FE) simulations are a valuable tool to support the analysis and optimization of production processes. In order to achieve realistic simulation results, a consistent simulation set-up followed by an evaluation through experiments is crucial. Stretch Blow Molding (SBM) is a commonly applied forming method to produce thin walled bottles. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) preforms are biaxially stretched into a closed cavity to form a bottle. In this process the thermo-mechanical material behavior during forming greatly influences the performance of the end product and consequently plays a key role for a reliable process simulation. To ensure a realistic material representation in the simulation model, an adequate material model is calibrated with stress-strain curves from biaxial tests. Thin PET-sheets are stretched under defined temperatures and strain rates. These representative experiments include process simplifications regarding geometry, heating and deformation parameters. Therefore, an evaluation step subsequent to the simulation set-up is inevitable. This paper presents a method for extracting temperature dependent stress-strain-curves from experiments close to the production process which enables the crucial evaluation of a process simulation. In the SBM process, the wall thickness distribution of the bottle refers to the preform deformation over time but does not fully define the thermo-mechanical material behavior. In the presented method, PET-preforms receive thermal treatment with Infrared (IR)-heaters from an SBM-machine and are subsequently inflated into free air (free-blow-trial). An IR-camera is used to obtain the temperature distribution on the preform immediately before blowing. Two high speed cameras are synchronized with a pressure sensor to consequently calculate reliable stress-strain curves at any point on the preform surface. These data is finally compared to results from FE-simulations of the free blow trials.

In order to improve the mechanical properties of short fiber composites, the fiber-matrix adhesion is decisive and depends strongly on the intersection region between the fiber and the matrix material. However, no perspicuous information about the influence or mechanical properties of the fiber-matrix interphase in short fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites is available. Thus, the present thesis aims for a systematic identification of the geometrical and mechanical impacts of an interphase on the linear-viscoelastic behavior in short glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics. Thereby, the performed investigations are focused on the interaction between micromechanical material modeling and experimental testing. On the one hand, a two-step modeling approach is developed for the realistic description of an entire three phase composite with interphase including anisotropic and linear-viscoelastic effects. On the other hand, the input of this model is provided by different experimental testing methods ranging from the micro- to the macroscale characterization of the composite and matrix material. By comparing these experimental results with the linear-viscoelastic modeling output, the impact of the interphase on the mechanical properties of the composite is accessible. Thus, it is shown that a realistic material modeling and experimental investigations are closely interlinked; L’influence des propriétés microscopiques de l’interphase entre la matrice et les fibres sur le comportement mécanique macroscopique n’est pas suffisamment connue dans le domaine des polymères renforcés par fibres courtes. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, une étude systématique des propriétés géométriques et mécaniques de l’interphase est réalisée concernant la description des effets sur la réponse viscoélastique linéaire du composite. Dans ce contexte, les résultats présentés mettent l’accent sur l’interaction entre la modélisation micromécanique et la caractérisation expérimentale. D’une part, un nouveau modèle micromécanique en deux étapes est développé pour la description d’un composite anisotrope à trois phases avec interphases. D’autre part, les paramètres du matériau utilisés pour la modélisation micromécanique sont identifiés avec des méthodes expérimentales aux échelles micro- et macroscopiques. En comparaison des résultats expérimentaux avec les propriétés effectives calculées de matériau composite, une inférence peut être faite sur les propriétés mécaniques du composite à partir de celles de l’interphase. Par conséquent, une méthode inverse est proposée offrant un accès aux propriétés inconnues de l’interphase. Enfin, la combinaison de la modélisation micromécanique et des résultats expérimentaux permet une meilleure compréhension des propriétés mécaniques de l’interphase, qui n’étaient auparavant pas accessibles au moyen de seules approches expérimentales