Fatigue life prediction of a rubber mount based on test of material properties and finite element analysis

Failure analysis and fatigue life prediction are very important in the design procedure to assure the safety and reliability of rubber components. The fatigue life of a rubber mount was predicted by combining test of material properties and finite element analysis (FEA). The natural rubber material material’s fatigue life equation was acquired based on uniaxial tensile test and fatigue life tests of the natural rubber. The strain distribution contours and the maximum total principal strains of the rubber mount at different loads in the x and y directions were obtained using finite element analysis method. The critical region cracks prone to arise were obtained and analyzed. Then the maximum total principal strain was used as the fatigue parameter, which was substituted into the natural rubber’s fatigue life equation, to predict the fatigue life of the rubber mount. Finally, fatigue lives of the rubber mount at different loads were measured on a fatigue test rig to validate the accuracy of the fatigue life prediction method. The test results imply that the fatigue lives predicted agree well with the test results.