Mechanical Response of Viton-A Under Dynamic Compression

The mechanical response of Viton-A is investigated across a wide range of dynamic strain rates (685 s $$^{-1}$$ - 8200 s $$^{-1}$$ ) with a Kolsky Bar, aka Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB), testing and visco-elastic model fitting. A bi-linear stress–strain response is observed at each strain rate, with secondary moduli values that increase with strain rate, ranging from 21 MPa to 35 MPa. A visco-elastic model, that utilizes Boltzmann’s superposition integral, is used to simulate the stress–strain response for Viton-A across the same range of strain rates that were experimentally tested. Overall, good agreement is seen between the visco-elastic model and the experimental tests. The model is able to capture the change in modulus observed experimentally at each strain rate, and the model predictions fall within two standard deviations of stress at every 0.5% strain, further indicating good agreement with the experimental data. Additionally, the model is shown to predict well to lower strain rate data found in the literature.