Abstract
Elastomeric components are widely used in the engineering field since their mechanical properties can vary according to a specific condition, enabling their applications under large deformations and multiaxial loading. In this context, the present study seeks to investigate the main challenges involved in the finite element hyperelasticity simulation of rubber-like material components under different cases of multiaxial loading and precompression. The complex geometry of a conical rubber spring was chosen to deal with several deformation modes; this component is in the suspension system placed between the frame and the axle for railway vehicles. The framework of this study provides the correlation between axial and radial stiffness under precompression obtained by experimental tests in prototypes and virtual modeling obtained through a curve fitting procedure. Since the material approaches incompressibility, different shape functions were adopted to describe the fields of pressure and displacements according to the finite element hybrid formulation. The material parameters were accurately adjusted through an optimization algorithm implemented in Python program language which calibrates the finite element model according to the prototype test data. However, as an initial guess, the proper constitutive model and its parameters were first defined based only on the uniaxial tensile test data, since this test is easy to perform and well understood. The validation of the simulation results in comparison with the experimental data demonstrated that care should be given when the same component is subjected to different multiaxial loading cases.
Highlights
Since new products development has always been increasing, several efforts have been focused on reducing time and costs
Despite the main challenges about computational efforts and timeconsuming process, Morman and Pan [12] performed studies comparing the closed-form analytical equations developed for the application in the design of elastomeric components and simulation response through Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
The files containing the Python commands run with the extension “.py”. This option became interesting for the proposed problem since it can be used to perform the following tasks: (i) Automation of repetitive tasks, such as the sequence of structural analyses via Finite Element Method (FEM); (ii) Parametric studies which modify the model, such as the attribution of different physical properties; (iii) Access to an output database, such as reading the postprocessing results
Summary
Since new products development has always been increasing, several efforts have been focused on reducing time and costs. Despite the main challenges about computational efforts and timeconsuming process, Morman and Pan [12] performed studies comparing the closed-form analytical equations developed for the application in the design of elastomeric components and simulation response through FEA. They argued that the closed-form equations should not provide accurate results in case of more complicated geometries and complex boundary conditions. Kadlowec et al [16] performed studies in which annular bushings were subjected to radial, torsional, and coupled radial-torsional modes of deformation They compared the elastic bushing response obtained experimentally with finite element results. It will be shown that care should be taken when the load direction is changed and the previous characterization cannot be valid anymore
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