Research progress on accelerated aging of silicon rubber foam under thermo-oxygen-irradiation complexconditions

Abstract

Silicone rubber foam is a significant structural material in specific systems. It works effectively under mechanical and complex environmental loads such as thermal, oxygen, irradiation, and so on. Previous studies have showed that the silicone rubber foam ages under complex conditions such as heat, oxygen, irradiation, and mechanical, which leads to the deterioration of its material properties. The aging mechanism of porous silicon rubber foam under the combination of thermal oxygen and irradiation is more complicated in contrast to the ordinary thermal degradation of rubber. It has always been challenging to predict the service life of silicon rubber foam accurately. The development of new experimental techniques for enhancing numerical modeling ability and establishing a theoretical multi-field aging model has been a key concern. Further, it is essential for predicting the life of silicon rubber foam and guiding performance evaluation. In this study, the research results of accelerated the aging of silicon rubber foam have been presented, primarily in three aspects including thermo-oxygen aging, radiation aging, and multi-field speed-up aging. Furthermore, the current research progress and latest developments in this field of study have been summarized.

Keywords

• silicon rubber foam
• multi-factor accelerated aging
• arrheniusaging model
• life prediction