Time-temperature superposition (TTS) is an advanced thermomechanical analysis method that allows rubber scientists and engineers to extrapolate the mechanical properties of polymeric materials to long times or high frequencies by using tests that last less than a day. The general theory behind TTS is that testing a material for a short time at a high temperature is equivalent to testing for a long time at a lower temperature. TTS exploits that unique equivalence of time and temperature in soft materials to allow engineers to characterize materials rapidly and accelerate the design cycle.
In their article "Time-temperature superposition: Turning hours of work into years of information," Veryst engineers Scott Grindy, Sean Teller, and Ehsan Osloub explain the fundamentals of viscoelasticity and dynamic mechanical analysis, demonstrate the use of TTS, describe its advantages and limitations, and discuss using TTS data in finite element analysis simulations.
The full article appears in Rubber World Magazine, January 2024, pp. 38-42, and is available here.