Investigation of Long-Term Waterproof Performance and Hardness Change of EPDM Rubber Gasket Used for Shield Tunnels
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 36, Issue 2
Abstract
The waterproof performance of shield-tunnel gaskets determines the long-term operation of shield tunnels. To study the long-term waterproofing performance of shield-tunnel gaskets, first, high-temperature aging tests of ethylene–propylene–diene monomer (EPDM) rubber specimens were performed, and an EPDM rubber aging model was constructed based on the Arrhenius equation using the time–temperature equivalence principle. Uniaxial compression tests were then conducted on the EPDM rubber with different degrees of aging to analyze the changes in material parameters and of the rubber intrinsic model with time. Subsequently, a rubber gasket used in a shield tunnel in Nanjing was used as the sample material, and aging tests were conducted on the inner and outer channel gaskets considering different joint displacements. The test results were combined with the ternary model based on the Arrhenius equation to predict the 100-year waterproof performance of the shield-tunnel gasket. The results show that the final stress relaxation coefficients of EPDM rubber for 100 years are 0.65 and 0.44 for initial compressive stresses of 1.1 and 1.6 MPa, respectively, as predicted by the aging coefficient model. Furthermore, a clear relationship was observed between the and parameters in the Mooney–Rivlin rubber constitutive model, and the hardness and modulus of elasticity of the rubber material gradually increased over time. The short-term stress relaxation in the early stage of the inner and outer channel gaskets under different openings amounted to approximately 20%–30% of the total relaxation, and the chemical stress relaxation in the later stage accounted for approximately 70%–80%.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, and codes generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51808469) and the Basic Applied Research Projects of the Sichuan Science and Technology Department (No. 2022NSFSC0442).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 36 • Issue 2 • February 2024
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 6, 2023
Accepted: Aug 4, 2023
Published online: Nov 25, 2023
Published in print: Feb 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Apr 25, 2024
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