Friction Characteristics Analysis of Rubber Bushing with a Bionic Flexible Contact Surface Based on the Convex Hull Structure

Abstract

Inspired by the convex hull structure of the dung beetle head’s surface, we extracted the non-smooth surface morphology of its head and designed a rubber bushing with a representative structure according to the bionics principle. According to the fitting results of the test data, Ogden N3-Prony N3 was selected as the hyper-viscoelastic constitutive model of the rubber material. Then, the two-direction (radial, axial) motion characteristics of the flexible friction pair in the rubber bushing were systematically analyzed from the aspects of stress, strain and thermal effect through the combination of numerical simulation and experimental research. Finally, the bionic design with the best drag reduction and wear resistance was determined.