Compression of Rubber Blocks

Abstract

Abstract Many features of the compression of rubber blocks can be deduced by means of a simple analytical treatment which, although approximate, appears to give reasonably satisfactory predictions for stiffness and interfacial stresses. The theory has been redeveloped and refined many times; some principal contributions are noted in References 1–14. While the analysis has been frequently repeated, it is interesting to note that what is probably the first, and in some ways the most comprehensive, theoretical discussion, did not refer specifically to rubber blocks; it dealt with the elastic properties of the periodontal membrane in connection with the tightness of teeth. Apart from an extensive review in connection with the use of rubber compression springs for bridge bearings, general results for small compressions of rubber sheets and blocks have not been collected together previously in one easily-available place, as far as I am aware. A review is therefore given here, with some remarks on its limitations. Attention is drawn to the surprisingly large effect of relatively small departures from absolute incompressibity of rubber, and of the use of frictional restraints instead of perfect bonding at loaded surfaces.