Impact simulation and experiment on rubber anti-vibration systems

There is very limited literature regarding impact analysis on solid rubber anti-vibration systems as the true damping characteristics of rubber materials are very complex and difficult to define. Viscoelastic approach is a usual method and has only achieved limited success. In this article, an integrated quasi-static and impact analysis with validation on an anti-vibration mount is presented. The Rayleigh damping has been introduced for rubber hysteresis. The impact responses from both simulation and experiment have been compared and have shown very good agreement in real time domain. In addition, it has been revealed that real geometry and elasticity of an impact object have to be included in simulation in order to obtain an accurate response. It has been shown that the proposed approach is reliable and can be used for an appropriate design stage to evaluate an impact/dynamic response of rubber anti-vibration systems. The key points to use this approach are also provided.