Abstract
Rubber components have been widely used in automotive industry as anti-vibration components for many years. These subjected to fluctuating loads, often fail due to the nucleation and growth of defects or cracks. To prevent such failures, it is necessary to understand the fatigue failure mechanism for rubber materials and evaluate the fatigue life for rubber components. Fatigue lifetime prediction and evaluation are the key technologies to assure the safety and reliability of automotive rubber components. The objective of this study is to develop the durability analysis process for vulcanized rubber components, which is applicable to predict fatigue lifetime at initial product design step. Fatigue lifetime prediction methodology of vulcanized natural rubber was proposed by incorporating the finite element analysis and fatigue damage parameter of maximum Green-Lagrange strains appearing at the critical location determined from fatigue test. In order to develop an appropriate fatigue damage parameter of the rubber material, a series of displacement controlled fatigue tests was conducted using 3-dimensional dumbbell specimens with different levels of mean displacement. It was shown that the maximum Green-Lagrange strain was a proper damage parameter, taking the mean displacement effects into account. Nonlinear finite element analyses of the engine mount insulator and 3-dimensional dumbbell specimens were performed based on a hyper-elastic material model determined from the simple tension, equi-biaxial tension and planar test. Fatigue lifetime prediction of engine mount insulator was made by incorporating the maximum Green-Lagrange strain values, which was evaluated from the finite element analysis and fatigue tests, respectively. Predicted fatigue lives of the rubber component showed a fairly good agreement with the experimental fatigue lives. Fatigue analysis procedure employed in this study could be used approximately for the fatigue design.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Gent, A.N.: Engineering with Rubber. Oxford University Press, Hanser, New York (1992)
Trederick, R.E.: Science and Technology of Rubber. Accdemic Press, New York (1978)
Tomas, A.J.: The development of fracture mechanics for elastomers. Rubber Chem. Technol. 67, 50–60 (1994)
Lake, G.J.: Fatigue and fracture of elastomers. Rubber Chem. Technol. 68, 435–460 (1995)
Woo, C.S., Kim, W.D., Kwon, J.D.: A study on the fatigue life prediction and evaluation of rubber components for automobile vehicle. Trans. KSME 13, 56–62 (2005)
Kim, J.H., Jeong, H.Y.: A study on the material properties and fatigue life of natural rubber with different carbon blacks. Intern. J. Fatigue 27, 263–272 (2005)
Roberts, B.J., Benzies, J.B.: The relationship between uniaxial and equibiaxial fatigue in gum and carbon black filled vulcanizates. Proc. Rubber con. 2, 2.1–2.13 (1997)
Mars, W.V., Fatemi, A.: A literature survey on fatigue analysis approaches for rubber. Int. J. Fatigue 24, 913–1012 (2002)
Andre, N., Cailletaud, G., Piques, R.: Haigh diagram for fatigue crack initiation prediction of natural rubber components. Kautschuk Und Gummi dunstoffe 52, 120–123 (1999)
Fatemi, Yang.: Cumulative fatigue damage and life prediction theories—a survey of the state of the art for homogeneous materials. Int. J. Fatigue 20, 9–34 (1998)
Hamed, G.R.: Molecular aspects of fatigue and fracture of rubber. Rubber Chem. Technol. 67, 529 (1994)
Klenke, D., Beste, A.: Ensurance of the fatigue life of metal-rubber components. Gummi Kunsftoffe 40, 1067–1071 (1987)
Thomas, A.G.: Factors influencing the strength of rubbers. J. Polym. Sci. 48, 145--157 (1974)
Agyris, J.H., Dunne, P.C., Angelpoulos, T., Bichat, B.: Large nature strains and some special difficulties due to nonlinearity and incompressibility in finite elements. Comp. Meth. Appl. Eng. 4, 219–278 (1974)
Swanson, S.H., Christensen, L.W.: Large deformation finite element calculations for slightly compressible hyperelasticitic materials. Comput. Struct. 21, 81–88 (1985)
Norman, K.N., Kao, B.G.: Finite element analysis of viscoelastic elastomeric structures vibrating about non-linear statically stressed configurations, SAE paper 811309 (1981)
Day, J., Miller, K.: Equibiaxial stretching of elastometric sheets, an analytical verification of an experiment technique. ABAQUS Users Conf. Proc. 35, 205–219 (2000)
Mullins, L.: Softening of rubber by deformation. Rubber Chem. Techno. 42, 339–362 (1969)
ISO 1827.: Rubber, vulcanized or thermoplastic---Determination of shear modulus and adhesion to rigid plates---Quadruple shear methods. TC 45, Rubber and rubber products (2007)
Yamaguchi, H., Nakagawa, M.: Fatigue test technique for rubber materials of vibration insulator. Int. polym. Sci. Technol. 20, 64–69 (1993)
Oh, H.L.: The fatigue life model of rubber bushing. Rubber Chem. Technol. 53, 1226–1238 (1980)
Alshuth, T., Abraham, F.: Parameter dependence and prediction of fatigue life of elastomer products. Rubber Chem. Technol. 75, 635–642 (2002)
Acknowledgment
This research has been supported by Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Korea.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Woo, CS., Kim, WD., Park, HS., Shin, WG. (2012). Damage and Fracture Analysis of Rubber Component. In: Öchsner, A., da Silva, L., Altenbach, H. (eds) Materials with Complex Behaviour II. Advanced Structured Materials, vol 16. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22700-4_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22700-4_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-22699-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-22700-4
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)