Understanding the underlying processes associated with the viscoelasticity performance of ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) during its service life is essential for assessing and predicting its waterproofing performance in underground infrastructure. The viscoelasticity of the polymer is closely related to its free volume, and both of these properties depend on multiple factors, such as temperature, stress magnitude, and strain level. To explore the fundamental viscoelastic behavior of EPDM using free volume as a proxy for viscoelasticity, this article investigates the influence of temperature, stress magnitude, and strain level, as well as their combined effect, on the free volume through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. An EPDM cross-linked molecular model was built and verified by comparing the simulation values of glass transition temperature, mechanical properties, and gas diffusivity with the experimental results reported in the literature. Then, the dependence of EPDM’s fractional free volume on temperature, strain, and their combined effect was investigated via MD simulations, on the basis of which the applicability of various superposition principles was also evaluated.
Understanding the underlying processes associated with the thermo-oxidative performance of the ethylenepropylene-diene monomer (EPDM) is essential for assessing and improving its waterproofing performance in underground infrastructures. To explore the fundamentals of EPDM degradation behavior during thermal oxidation, this paper investigates the effects of hydrocarbon free chain, carbon crosslink, chain scission, hydroxyl, and ether crosslinks, on its kinetics and mechanical properties through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Several EPDM thermo-oxidative models were built and verified by comparing the simulation results of oxygen diffusivity, glass transition temperature, and mechanical properties with reported experimental ones. Then the radius of gyration, free volume, density, transport, glass transition, and uniaxial compression performance were investigated via MD simulations. The results show that crosslinking in the thermal oxidation process has a significant influence on the free volume, glass transition temperature, and mechanical properties of the system; the hydroxyl and chain scission mainly interfere with the transport properties; all of these affect the structural conformation.
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