• Hiro Tanaka, Osaka University
• Hiroshi Kadowaki, Bridgestone Corporation

Elastomers such as rubber, resin, or other polymers and soft matter are widely utilized in various industrial products. They are used as parts for structural, sealing, mechanical/electrical isolation, wear or damage resistance, or other diverse purposes. However, computational simulations with the materials are challenging both in manufacturing process simulations and product performance simulations because of their non-linear mechanical behaviors and various operational environments. One needs to consider material non-linearity under large deformation and real world operational conditions. Material non-linearity includes non-linear elasticity, viscosity, plasticity, damage, fracture, and so on. Operational conditions include non-linear frictional contact, extremely high pressure, wide range of temperature, mixing, extrusion, etc.
In this mini-symposium, we invite papers that discuss research and industrial applications in solid mechanics of elastomers from the view point of computational simulations. Topics in this mini-symposium include but not limited to material modeling and experimental methods, computational methods, real world applications, and validation of simulation results.
This Mini-symposium is jointly organized by A-TS 03-29 Technical Section on Solid Mechanics of Rubbers in Materials and Mechanics Division of the Japan Society for Mechanical Engineers, and Research Subcommittee for Mechanics of Rubber in the Society of Rubber Science and Technology, Japan.