Abstract
Although rubber components are extensively used in mechanic parts, there are still a lot of difficulties in designing the rubber components applied in complex shapes and preloaded states because of the complicated material properties. One of the most important parameters for more detailed and accurate mechanical analysis during the development stages is the dynamic characteristics of the rubber components. It is well known that the dynamic properties of rubber are dependent on frequency as well as static preload. Consequently, a large number of experiments have to be conducted to identify the dynamic stiffness of a rubber bush considering the various applied conditions. In this paper, an efficient experimental method is suggested, which estimates the dynamic stiffness of a rubber bush using rubber material test and static stiffness of the bush. This technique is based on the assumption that dynamic stiffness of a rubber component subjected to large static preload prior to small amplitude excitation can be separated into a function of static strain and a function of frequency. This procedure is capable of predicting the dynamic stiffness of a rubber bush under various load conditions from minimized test data and the predicted values are evaluated by comparing with experimental results.
Keywords: Rubber, Dynamic Stiffness, Dynamic Ratio, Experimental Method