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Life Prediction of Rubber

Life prediction addresses the functional requirements of components and associated failure mechanisms e.g.

  • Excessive creep in a mount due to thermal and oxidative ageing
  • Excessive stress relaxation in a seal due to fluid permeation and chemical ageing
  • Excessive change in stiffness and damping in a vibration isolator due to ageing
  • Loss of load capability in a mount or bush due to fatigue crack growth
In each case suitable models may be derived from appropriate materials tests to predict the rate of failure. For example, the rate of fatigue crack growth in a component can be predicted from:
    (i) The change in tearing energy with crack length (T vs. c) from a finite element analysis of the component and
    (ii) The crack growth model for the rubber that relates the rate of crack growth to the tearing energy ( dc/dN = f (T)).

Finite element crack analysis of automotive top mount
and fatigue damage in a component (circled)
 
 

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