No abstract

The lifetime of rubber components depends on their service loading and environment. In the case of hostile environments such as oil rich medium, the exposure of this aggressive solvent to rubber components can lead to materials degradation in the form of swelling. The corresponding level of swelling is generally affected by the rubber-solvent combination and the presence of mechanical loading. When the rubber is concurrently subjected to uniaxial stress state, it is established that the compressive stress decreases swelling while opposite trend is observed for tensile stress. However, its generalization to the case of multiaxial stress state is not fully established. The present work investigates the effect of multiaxial mechanical loading on the swelling of rubber in palm biodiesel. For this purpose, specially design specimen and device are developed. The device enables the immersion tests to be conducted while the rubber specimens are concurrently subjected to multiaxial mechanical loading. The elastomer considered is Chloroprene Rubber (CR). Results show that the swelling level is significantly affected by mechanical loading.