Development of a Mathematical Model for Predicting the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Rubber When Introducing a Complex Vulcanization Activator

Abstract

A mathematical description is developed for predicting the physicomechanical properties of sulfur vulcanizates of diene rubbers obtained in the presence of complex vulcanization activators. The concentrations of the components of the complex vulcanization activator, as well as the technological modes of its production, are selected as input parameters. Based on a sample of over 800 experiments, dependences are established for the changes in the modulus and conditional strength on stretching, as well as the relative elongation at breaking, in relation to the ratio of the activator components, temperature, and duration of its synthesis. Statistical data processing is conducted, including Shapiro–Wilk statistical tests. Using neural network technology, a mathematical model is synthesized to describe the influence of the composition of the vulcanization activator and the conditions of its synthesis on the physicomechanical properties of the vulcanizates. The neural network is trained using a dataset containing 784 experiments, and the quality of the approximation is assessed on a control sample of 76 experiments. The obtained values of the relative error in determining the conditional strength and relative elongation by the computational method are approximately 6%. A graphical representation of the results of the simulation is provided.