| MICROMECHANICS MODEL FOR RUBBER BLENDS FILLED BY
A NANO-REINFORCED DEVULCANIZED RECYCLED RUBBER:
APPLICATION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY |
| Seyed Kamal Jalali 1, James Busfield 2, Nicola Pugno 1,2 |
1Laboratory for Bioinspired, Bionic, Nano, Meta Materials & Mechanics, Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, Università di Trento
2School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London |
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| ABSTRACT |
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The present report proposes a micromechanics model for predicting the dynamic modulus of rubber blends
consisting of a base rubber and devulcanized recycled rubbers reinforced by nanofillers. A four-step hierarchical
homogenization is established to relate the properties of components from the nano-sized reinforcements to the macro-scaled
final blend. The developed model accounts for the effect of agglomeration and geometry of nano-fillers, the quality of the
devulcanization process, and the properties of the interphase surrounding the nanofillers on the dynamic modulus of the
rubber blend. A comprehensive dimensionless parametric study is performed whose output in terms of graphical maps can be
used as a design guideline for practical cases in industries like automotive. A case study for recycled end-of-life tires (ELTs)
reinforced by nano clays is presented and it is found that the nano reinforcement of devulcanized rubbers has a remarkable
potential to compensate for the weakness compared to its virgin counterpart. |
| Key Words:
Nano reinforcement, End-of-life tires (ELTs), Devulcanization, Recycled rubber, Halpin-Tsai (H-T) |
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Corresponding Author.
Nicola Pugno , Email. 
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