EXTENSION AND COMPRESSION OF ELASTOMERIC BUTT-JOINT SEALS

The conventional practice for the design of elastomeric butt joint sea ls in pavement and building expansion joints is based primarily on sta ndard tests of model seals. The practice does not incorporate structur al analysis and does not utilize mechanical properties of the sealant. This study concerns the applicability of a particular load versus def lection equation for the extension and compression design of these sea ls, i.e., the elementary large compression equation suggested by Payne in 1956 and Gent and Lindley in 1959 for bonded rubber blocks. The st udy demonstrates, using experiments to measure strain energy density f unctions for two sealants, by application of these functions in finite -element analyses and by comparison of the finite-element and elementa ry analysis results, the capabilities and limitations of the load vers us deflection equation. In the process, the study introduces an effici ent experimental technique for evaluating coefficients of the Rivlin s train energy density polynomial for general application to the analysi s of elastomeric structures, and demonstrates the utility of the finit e-element-based approach for extension and compression analysis of buf f joint seals.