Material model and experimental testing of rubber components under cyclic deformation

The presented model is a further development of the rheological model ( Rabkin & Brüger 2001 ) for finite element analysis of filled vulcanizates under cyclic loading. This model describes the typical strain dependent properties of rubber-like materials, in particular the rate independent material damping. The experimental testing, done with rubber samples in the form of a buffer under displacement controlled harmonic loading, is performed for two cases: ( 1 ) cycle tests at various static preloadings and different deformation amplitudes and ( 2 ) fatigue life tests at fixed static preloading and deformation amplitude until failure. The obtained data is compared with the corresponding results of numerical modelling. An example of the FE-calculation using the MSC/MARC © program is given. The important feature of the proposed model is its direct relation to the widely used rainflow counting method at fatigue analysis. The possibilities to apply this model to fatigue analysis and prediction of fatigue life of rubber components are discussed.