Applications compression set

Compression Set. Compression set is the residual deformation of a material after removal of an applied compressive stress. For good performance in many applications, compression set values should be low. A low compression set valne indicates that a material recovers much of its original height after compression and release of the compressive force. 

An area of continued research is in development of elastomeric material models which can incorporate cyclic behavior into one model casting aside the need to switch from non-cyclic to cyclic models. Further, other areas of research involve more accurately predicting viscoelastic behavior such as stress relaxation, creep, and most importantly for cyclic applications, compression set. As these models are developed, the accuracy and abilities of Finite Element Analysis of elastomers will improve dramatically and provide a much better method to predict the complex loading conditions over time that elastomeric parts commonly see. 

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