Mechanical characterization of a Tire Derived Material: Experiments, hyperelastic modeling and numerical validation

•The mechanical behavior of a Tire Derived Material (TDM) is studied in details.•Tensile, compression, simple shear and volumetric test were performed.•Conventional hyperelastic models were used to evaluate the experimental data.•Finite element simulations on railway track mat made of TDM have been carried out.•Experimental and numerical results show a good agreement in a certain range of deformation. In this paper the mechanical behavior of a Tire Derived Material is presented in details. Tensile, compression, simple shear and volumetric test are performed. Tests showed low tensile strength, stiffening behavior under compression, hysteresis and strain rate sensitivity of the material. Four hyperelastic models were fitted to the collected experimental data to investigate the rate-independent behavior of the material when used as anti-vibration mat for railway track applications. Finally finite element simulations of tests on the railway track mat have been carried out. The comparison of experimental and numerical results shows a good agreement in a certain range of deformation.