Computer aided optimum design of rubber recipe using uniform design

The application of Uniform design in rubber formulation and its correspondi ng Group Methods of Data Handling modeling and Simulated Annealing optimiza tion methodology are investigated. The example of NR/VBR (vinyl polybutadie ne rubber with 80% of vinyl content) blend in tyre tread shows that Uniform design can distribute the experiment points evenly so as to establish math ematical models of high precision. With computer aided modeling and optimiz ation technology, the optimum formulation can be predicted. (C) 2001 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.