Quasistatic compression mechanical properties of EPDM material after pyrolysis.

In order to study the pyrolysis process of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) insulation material and its compression mechanical behavior under high strain rate, the thermal stability of EPDM was analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Based on the TGA curve and the thermal degradation temperature, the resistance furnace was set at different temperatures to complete the pyrolysis test. And then quasistatic compression tests were conducted by the universal testing machine. Results showed that, the mechanical properties of EPDM can be divided into three stages, the stressstrain curves first decreased, then rose and last reduced with the increase of pyrolysis temperature. Phased models were used to give a good description of mechanical properties of EPDM material under different degrees of pyrolysis. The second order Polynomial hyperelastic model including temperature related items was built to predict the mechanical response of EPDM material after different pyrolysis temperatures. Compared with the test results, the compression models can be used to effectively describe the mechanical behaviors of EPDM material with good accuracy.