Inflation-Extension Test of Silicon Rubber-Nitinol Composite Tube

摘要

Composite tube fabricated from elastomer matrix reinforced with NiTi wires was tested within simultaneous inflation and extension. Four different longitudinal weights were applied (m=41g; 188g; 488g; and 785g) to induce initial prestrain of the tube. The inflation was induced with repeating pressurization up to 200kPa; four times with each weight. Displacements and loading pressure were recorded into PC. No significant hysteresis and material instability, typical for elastomeric tubes, were observed. Simplified model, assuming the tube to be anisotropic hyperelastic continuum, was adopted in order to estimate material parameters by analytical model of the thick-walled vessel. This model was only successful in fitting the data corresponding to the smallest longitudinal weight.It was concluded that NiTi reinforcement reduces elastomer viscoelasticity in macroscopic response, which can not be fully described with the model considering the effect of wires only as the introduction of anisotropy.