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Study on determination of durability analysis process and fatigue damage

parameter for rubber component

Article  in  Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology · May 2011

DOI: 10.1007/s12206-011-0221-6

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 Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (5) (2011) 1159~1165
www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x
DOI 10.1007/s12206-011-0221-6

Study on determination of durability analysis process and

fatigue damage parameter for rubber component†
Seong-In Moon1,*, Il-Je Cho1, Chang-Su Woo2 and Wan-Doo Kim2
1
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 1045 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon-si, 305-353, Korea
2
Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, 104 Sinseong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon-si, 305-343, Korea

(Manuscript Received May 31, 2010; Revised August 5, 2010; Accepted January 6, 2011)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abstract

Rubber components, which have been widely used in the automotive industry as anti-vibration components for many years, are sub-
jected to fluctuating loads, often failing due to the nucleation and growth of defects or cracks. To prevent such failures, it is necessary to
understand the fatigue failure mechanism for rubber materials and to evaluate the fatigue life for rubber components. The objective of
this study is to develop a durability analysis process for vulcanized rubber components, that can predict fatigue life at the initial product
design step. The determination method of nonlinear material constants for FE analysis was proposed. Also, to investigate the applicability
of the commonly used damage parameters, fatigue tests and corresponding finite element analyses were carried out and normal and shear
strain was proposed as the fatigue damage parameter for rubber components. Fatigue analysis for automotive rubber components was
performed and the durability analysis process was reviewed.

Keywords: Fatigue life; Fatigue damage parameter; Rubber component; Suspension bush
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

supplement drawbacks of evaluation through tests and could

1. Introduction
significantly reduce time for fatigue-proof design. However,
Rubber’s ability to withstand very large strain without per- there are still some problems. First, the rubber materials show
manent deformation or fracture makes it ideal for many appli- particular mechanical properties according to compounding
cations, including tires, vibration isolators, seals, hoses, belts, ingredients and manufacturing conditions [6, 7]. Therefore, to
impact bumpers, medical devices and structural bearings to evaluate the fatigue life of designed rubber components, the
name a few [1, 2]. These rubber components subjected to fluc- material properties of components should be obtained. It is
tuating loads often fail due to the nucleation and growth of practically impossible to measure the material properties for
defects or cracks. To prevent such failures, it is necessary to the whole component. Second, some parameters like stress,
understand the fatigue failure mechanism for rubber materials strain, SED (strain energy density) and so on are generally
and to evaluate the fatigue life for rubber components. For used to estimate fatigue life of rubber components [8-10], but
these reasons, not only the rubber component manufacturers the question remains how we should use these parameters to
but also their customers like automotive makers perform a estimate the component life and what their limitations of the
series of strict fatigue test on the components such as compo- parameters are.
nent fatigue tests and driving fatigue tests. Currently, design- The objective of this paper is to develop a durability analy-
ers rely on their own trial-error based experiences for the fa- sis process for vulcanized rubber components that is applica-
tigue design. Thus, those designs depending on only experi- ble to predicting fatigue life at initial product design stage. Fig.
ence may result in disqualification from the fatigue test during 1 is a schematic diagram showing the fatigue life evaluation
final product evaluation. Those fatigue failures of any new procedure. The fatigue damage parameters such as principal
designs are prohibitive for automotive manufacturers. strain, SED and so on, which are calculated by FEA (finite
To avoid this problem, many researchers [3-5] are focusing element analysis), and the fatigue properties of the rubber
on evaluation of fatigue life using CAE techniques that could material are used in order to estimate the fatigue life of rubber
†
This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor components. This paper proposes a methodology to extract the
Chongdu Cho material properties for finite element analysis input data from
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 42 868 8485 basic test results. Fatigue tests and corresponding finite ele-
E-mail address: simoon21c@kaeri.re.kr
© KSME & Springer 2011 ment analyses were carried out to investigate the applicability
1160 S.-I. Moon et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (5) (2011) 1159~1165

Table 1. Basic material properties of suspension bush.

Shore IRHD Ultimate Tensile

Elongation (%)
Hardness Hardness Strength (MPa)
67.8 70.5 26.3 436

Table 2. Non-linear material constants of suspension bush.

Strain Range C10 (MPa) C01 (MPa)

25% 0.901 0
50% 0.781 0
100% 0.727 0.001

Fig. 1. Fatigue life evaluation procedure.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2. Nonlinear material constant tests: (a) simple tension; (b) equi- (a)
biaxial; (c) pure shear.

of commonly used fatigue damage parameters, and optimum

fatigue damage parameter was selected. Also, a fatigue analy-
sis for automotive rubber components was performed and the
durability analysis process was reviewed.

2. Measurement of material property and fatigue test

of component
2.1 Mechanical material property (b)
The basic material properties of the rubber component, a
suspension bush, were measured through hardness tests and
simple tension tests. Hardness was measured in Shore A hard-
ness and IRHD (International Rubber Hardness Degree). For
the mechanical tests, UTM (Universal Test Machine) was
used at a speed of 100 mm/min, and deflection was measured
using a laser extensometer in Fig. 2. Table 1 shows the meas-
ured basic material properties of the suspension bush.

2.2 Non-linear material constant for hyper-elastic material

For general elastic materials, spring-back is shown within
the elastic limit but rubber materials are characterized by hy-
per-elasticity which is valid for materials that exhibit elastic
response up to large strain. Hyper-elastic materials are de-
scribed in terms of a strain energy potential W, which defines
the strain energy stored in the material per unit of reference
volume as a function of the strain. In this paper, the Mooney-
Rivlin form expressed with strain invariant was used to char-
acterize the mechanical behaviors and the strain energy poten-
tial can be expressed as the following Eq. (1):
W = C10 ( I1 − 3) + C01 ( I 2 − 3) , (1)
(c)
Fig. 3. Stress-strain curves: (a) simple tension; (b) equibiaxial; (c) pure
shear.
where I1 and I2 are the first and second strain invariant of the
deviatoric component of the left Cauchy-Green deformation
tensor, respectively, and C10 and C01 are material constants
empirically determined by curve fitting the stress-strain rela-
tionship to simple tension test, equibiaxial tension test and
pure shear test results.
Three basic tests for strain states, simple tension, equibiax-
 S.-I. Moon et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (5) (2011) 1159~1165 1161

ial tension and pure shear test, were carried out and the strain
levels were progressively increased up to the maximum value,
1.0. Fig. 3 shows the stress-strain curves for each stress state
and equibiaxial tension, pure shear and simple tension arrange
in order of stiffness magnitude. The non-linear material con-
Z
stants were determined through curve fitting for these stress-
Y X strain curves and presented in Table 2.
(a) (b) 2.3 Fatigue material property
Fig. 4. Fatigue specimen: (a) dumbbell specimen; (b) FE model. The three-dimensional (3D) dumbbell specimens shown in
Fig. 4(a) were used for fatigue tests. To determine a fatigue
damage parameter of the rubber material and fatigue life, fa-
tigue tests using 3D dumbbell specimens were conducted in
Mean Displacement, mm

ambient temperature under the displacement controlled condi-

tion with a sine waveform of 3.0 Hz. The mean displacement
varies from 0 mm to 5 mm and the amplitude displacement
ranges from 3 mm to 12 mm. With increase of cycles in the
fatigue test, the maximum load decreased little by little.
When the crack grew over the critical size, the maximum
load suddenly decreased, and the specimen was finally frac-
tured. In this paper, we assumed that fatigue failure occurs
when the maximum load drops up to 20% level of initial
maximum load.
Fig. 5 shows the relationship between the mean displace-
Fig. 5. Displacement-fatigue life curve. ment and the fatigue life for 3D dumbbell specimens. The
fatigue life was reduced as the mean displacement and ampli-
tude displacement increased. To determine the relationship
between fatigue damage parameters and the fatigue life, the
deformation behavior of the dumbbell specimen was esti-
mated by 3D finite element analysis and ABAQUS Ver. 6.8
Log(SED)

[11] package was used for the finite element analysis. Fig.
4(b) shows a finite element mesh of the 3D dumbbell speci-
men. An eighth of the specimen was modeled by considering
the symmetry condition and the mesh was constructed with 8-
node linear brick, hybrid elements. The number of nodes and
elements of the model is 20,157 and 4,340, respectively. The
nodes on the lower surface of the model were constrained, and
those on the upper surface were controlled with displacement
(a) according to the loading condition. It was assumed that fatigue
life was determined by the maximum value of fatigue damage
parameters [3]. From a series of finite element analysis results
and test results, the relationship between the fatigue life and
the typical fatigue damage parameters, principal stain and
Log(Strain)

SED, was obtained and presented in Fig. 6.

2.4 Characteristic and durability tests for rubber component

To verify the validity of finite element analyses and durabil-

ity analyses, static stiffness and fatigue life were measured by
using a suspension bush for vehicles and the results presented
in section 3. Fig. 7(b) shows the suspension bush being used
in the tests. The static stiffness was measured in two directions,
(b)
void direction (P-direction) and bridge direction (Q-direction),
Fig. 6. Damage parameter-fatigue life curves: (a) strain energy density; and a durability test was performed under the condition pre-
(b) 1st principal strain. sented in Table 3. For the durability tests, the outer pipe of the
1162 S.-I. Moon et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (5) (2011) 1159~1165

Table 3. Loading condition for fatigue test. Table 4. Basic material properties searched from RubPRO.

Direction Load Frequency (Hz) IRHD Tensile Strength Elongation

Material Name
Hardness (MPa) (%)
Radial P P±5.5P 3.3
NR60-01 66 21.2 400
Torsion θ T±1.2T 3.3
NR60-02 65 20.9 456
NR65-01 66 20.8 460
NR65-02 72 19.7 412
NR65-03 65 24.9 471
NR70-01 75 26.3 452
NR70-02 70 24.0 495

(a) (b)

Fig. 7. Suspension bush specimen: (a) loading condition; (b) tested

specimen.

bush was constrained, and the inner pipe was controlled by

loading.

3. Development of durability analysis procedure

In this section, the methodology to extract the material (a)
properties for FEA from the rubber material database of Korea
Institute of Machinery and Materials, RubPRO, and basic test
results and then optimum fatigue damage parameter was de-
termined. Also, a fatigue analysis for automotive rubber com-
ponents was performed and the durability analysis process
was reviewed.

3.1 Determination of non-linear material constant for hyper-

elastic material
To perform finite element analyses for newly designed rub-
ber components, the non-linear material constants have to be
conformed in advance because the rubber materials show
different mechanical behaviors according to compounding (b)
ingredients and manufacturing conditions. However, it is prac-
tically impossible because there is no standard for compound-
ing condition. Therefore, a methodology to determine the non-
linear material constants for finite element analyses from
RubPRO was proposed by using the basic mechanical proper-
ties.
A total of 39 data set was searched from RubPRO on condi-
tion of 60 ~ 75 IRHD similar to the hardness of the suspension
bush, 70 IRHD. Among these data, seven sets of rubber mate-
rial were selected on the basis of similarity of ultimate tensile
strength and elongation and these were presented in Table 4. It
can be known that NR70-01 is the most similar material
among these materials, and the ultimate tensile strength and (c)
elongation is 26.3 MPa and 452%, respectively. Fig. 8. Load-displacement curves of dumbbell specimen: (a) 25%
The finite element analyses for the suspension bush were strain range; (b) 50% strain range; (c) 100% strain range.
performed by using the non-linear material constants pre-
sented in Table 4, and then the load-displacement curves were most similar mechanical behavior with suspension bush mate-
produced. Fig. 8 illustrates that NR70-01 material presents the rial with respect to load-displacement curve.
 S.-I. Moon et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (5) (2011) 1159~1165
Z
Y X
Fig. 9. Finite element mesh of suspension bush.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 10. Load-displacement curves of suspension bush: (a) P-direction;
(b) Q-direction.
3.2 Finite element analysis
The deformation behavior of the suspension bush was esti-
mated by using 3D finite element analysis and ABAQUS Ver.
6.8 explicit code was used for the analysis. Fig. 9 shows the
finite element mesh for the suspension bush constructed with
10-node quadratic tetrahedron elements (C3D10M) without
inner and outer pipe of bush. The number of nodes and ele-
ments of the model is 152,601 and 101,707, respectively. The
nodes on the inner pipe were constrained, and those on the
outer pipe were controlled by loading. It was assumed that the
initial ratio of bulk elastic modulus to shear elastic modulus,
K0/µ0, was 100.
Fig. 10 depicts the load-displacement curves for the suspen-
sion bush. The estimated results show a good agreement with
1163
(a) (b)
Fig. 11. Contour plots of SED and principal strain: (a) SED; (b) 1st
principal strain.
1 1
γ γ
2 2
0.72 0.56
ε ε
− 0.81 0.64 − 0.43 0.68
(a) (b)
Fig. 12. Mohr’s circle for strain at (a) MAX. SED point; (b) MAX.
strain point.
experimental results within maximum difference of 15%.
3.3 Determination of fatigue damage parameter
For fatigue life evaluation, not only crack nucleation but
also crack growth is considered. However, in the case of rub-
ber components in vehicles, crack initiation is defined as fail-
ure because the mechanical characteristic of rubber can be
changed, and the estimation for crack nucleation was focused
on in this study. The two widely used fatigue damage parame-
ters for crack nucleation prediction in rubber components are
maximum principal strain (or stretch) and SED. Stress has
rarely been used as a fatigue damage parameter in rubber
components [8, 9].
The contour plots of strain energy density and first principal
strain at maximum load are shown in Fig. 11. In this figure,
we can see that the maximum points of the damage parame-
ters are different from one another. The maximum point of
SED was identical to crack nucleation point observed from the
fatigue life tests for the suspension bush. Consequently, it is
thought that SED as fatigue damage parameter can be used for
predicting the crack nucleation point.
Fig. 12 shows the Mohr’s circles for strain at the maximum
points of SED and first principal strain, respectively. In this
figure, it is known that the maximum shear strain appears at
the maximum SED point but different from the maximum
principal strain point. Hence, it was thought that to only use
the first principal strain is not sufficient to estimate the failure
of rubber components in case where shear deformation pre-
1164 S.-I. Moon et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (5) (2011) 1159~1165
dominantly influences the failure of rubber components.
3.4 Fatigue life prediction for rubber component
The fatigue life was calculated by using SED and first prin-
cipal strain obtained from finite element analyses. The fatigue
properties measured by using 3D dumbbell specimens were
used, and the relationship between fatigue life and fatigue
damage parameters, SED and first principal strain, was pre-
sented as follows:
N f = 190,546 ( SED )
−2.063
(2)
N f = 21,314 ( Strain )
−4.521
(3)
where Nf is fatigue life.
The fatigue life calculated by using SED and first principal
strain was underestimated, and the fatigue life normalized
with fatigue test results was 0.33 and 0.52, respectively. As
stated above, it is thought that these underestimated results are
caused by shear deformation. SED is a scalar quantity, so it
does not predict crack nucleation in a specific orientation.
Also, equibiaxial tension fatigue life was longer than simple
tension fatigue life by a factor of approximately 4, when com-
pared based on equal strain energy density [8]. Therefore, it is
not appropriate to evaluate the fatigue life of rubber compo-
nents by using SED. Also, if normal deformation is dominant
in failure mode, the fatigue life can be estimated by using
maximum principal strain as fatigue damage parameter [3, 5].
Thus, for the purpose of more accurate fatigue life, both nor-
mal strain and shear strain should be considered. Moreover,
fatigue properties for shear deformation are needed as well.
4. Conclusions
To develop a durability analysis process for vulcanized rub-
ber components, that is applicable to predicting fatigue life at
initial product design stage, a methodology is proposed to
extract the material properties for FEA from basic test results.
Also, to investigate the applicability of commonly used fa-
tigue damage parameters, fatigue tests and corresponding
finite element analyses were carried out and optimum fatigue
damage parameter was selected. The key findings and results
are as follows:
(1) A methodology to extract the non-linear material prop-
erties for FEA from the rubber material database of Korea
Institute of Machinery and Materials, RubPRO, and basic test
results was proposed.
(2) Strain energy density as a fatigue damage parameter ac-
curately predicted the crack initiation point, but the predicted
fatigue life showed a big discrepancy of 77% with test results.
(3) First principal strain as a fatigue damage parameter did
not predict the crack initiation point and the fatigue life. The
predicted fatigue life showed a big discrepancy of 52% with
test results.
(4) To estimate more accurate fatigue life, not only normal
strain but also shear strain should be considered, and fatigue
properties for shear deformation are needed.
References
[1] Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, Development of
Integrated Design System for Mechanical Rubber Compo-
nents, M1-9911-00-0014 (2004).
[2] A. N. Gent, Engineering with Rubber, Hanser Gardner
(2001).
[3] C. S. Woo, W. D. Kim and J. D. Kwon, A Study on the Fa-
tigue Life Prediction and Evaluation of Rubber Components
for Automobile Vehicle, Transaction of KSME, 13 (6)
(2005) 56-62.
[4] C. H. Kim, K. J. Kim, H. T. Jeong, C. W. Kim, I. S. Sohn
and J. B. Kim, Prediction of Durability, Static and Dynamic
Properties on Rubber, Transaction of KSME, 14 (6) (2006)
17-23.
[5] C. S. Woo, W. D. Kim and J. D. Kwon A Study on the Ma-
terial Properties and Fatigue Life Prediction of Natural Rub-
ber Component, Material Science and Engineering (2008)
367-381.
[6] J. H. Kim and H. Y. Jeong, A Study on the Material Proper-
ties and Fatigue Life of Natural Rubber with Different Car-
bon Blacks, Internal Journal of Fatigue, 27 (2005) 263-272.
[7] B. J. Roberts and J. B. Benzies, The Relationship between
Uniaxial and Equibiaxial Fatigue in Gum and Carbon black
filled Vulcanizates, Proceedings of Rubbercon, 2.1 (1997)
2.1-2.13.
[8] W. V. Mars and A. Fatemi, A Literature Survey on Fatigue
Analysis Approaches for Rubber, International Journal of
Fatigue, 24 (2002) 949-961.
[9] GM, Standard Test Methods for Vulcanized Rubber and
TPE for Use in finite Element Analysis Modeling.
[10] N. Andre, G. Cailletaud and R. Piques, Haigh Diagram for
Fatigue Crack Initiation Prediction of Natural Rubber Com-
ponents, Kautschuk Und Gummi dunstoffe, 52 (1999) 120-
123.
[11] Dassault Systems, ABAQUS Version 6.8 User’s manual
(2008).
Seong In Moon received his B.S., M.S.
and Ph. D. in Mechanical Design from
Sungkyunkwan University in 1999,
2001 and 2005 in Korea. He worked for
Hyundai Motors as a senior researcher
from 2005 to 2009. He is currently a
senior researcher in Korea Atomic
Energy Research Institute. His research
interests are durability evaluation of mechanical system and
nuclear fuel cycle facility design.
 S.-I. Moon et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 25 (5) (2011) 1159~1165 1165

Il Je Cho received his B.S. and M.S. in Wan Doo Kim received his B.S, M.S
Nuclear Engineering from Hanyang and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering
University in 1996 and 1998 in Korea. from Seoul National University in 1980,
He is currently a senior researcher in 1982 and 1993. He is currently a ten-
Korea Atomic Energy Research Insti- ured researcher at Korea Institute of
tute. His research interests are nuclear Machinery and Materials, and a steering
fuel cycle facility design (hot-cell), committee member of National Science
management of spent fuel, and safety and Technology Council. His research
issues of nuclear fuel cycle. interests are nature-inspired technology, rubber mechanics and
sustainable mechanical design.
Chang Su Woo received his M.S from
Seoul National University in 1987 and
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in
2003 from Youngnam University. He
was recruited in 1989 by the Korea
Institute of Machinery and Materials
(KIMM) to work on fatigue analysis of
mechanical components. He has pub-
lished approximately 50 papers relating to research on rubber
engineering components, and their applications, such as auto-
motive mounts and bushings, suspension of railway vehicles,
shock & vibration isolators, and structure energy dissipation
systems.

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