Fatigue life predictions of rubber components: Applications to an automobile cradle mount

Abstract

Rubber components have broad applications in industry and they often operate under cyclic loading conditions. Therefore, fatigue analysis is an essential part of the failure analysis and life prediction of such components. In this paper a fatigue life prediction methodology for rubber components is developed, which is then verified by means of the analysis and testing of an automobile cradle mount made of filled natural rubber. The analysis conducted includes constitutive behavior representation of the material, finite element analysis of the component, and a fatigue damage parameter for life predictions. Both the fatigue crack initiation life prediction approach and the crack-growth-based life prediction approach were used. Test results are shown to be in reasonable agreement with the predicted fatigue lives for both the crack initiation approach and the crack growth approach.