Fatigue Life Modeling&Simulation of Elastomer-Polymer Materials

Engineering and qualifying a rubber component for dynamic applications is often time-consuming and expensive due to the need to control fatigue failure. Endurica"s Phase I project demonstrated feasibility of using numerical simulation of rubber"s failure process to compute effects of material properties, component geometry, and applied duty cycle. Through simulation, Endurica provides means to evaluate fatigue performance before costs of component testing start to accrue. Funding Endurica"s Phase II proposal will enable the implementation, testing, and productization of a wide range of capabilities useful for simulating fatigue failure of rubber components. The final deliverable will include the ability to analyze multiaxial, variable amplitude duty cycles, to consider the unique material characteristics of rubber (inclusive of temperature effects), and to account for self-heating of the rubber under the action of dynamic loading. The code will include a user-oriented, menu-driven interface. Using the new tool, a case study will be made of a tank track backer pad. The backer pad material will be fully characterized, and finite element analysis of its mechanical and thermal behavior will be run to determine strain history and operating temperature. Fatigue life predictions of the backer pad will be compared with experimental observations.