Fatigue life prediction of cord–rubber composite structures based on progressive damage analysis

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a progressive damage framework to predict the fatigue life of cord-reinforced rubber composite under cyclic loadings. Special attention has been paid to failure mechanisms, like cord–rubber interfacial debonding, and rubber matrix damage.

Design/methodology/approach

The constitutive modeling is based on the continuum damage mechanics (CDMs) and the thermodynamics of irreversible process. The damage in rubber is described by an istropic law, whereas elasto-plastic continuum model has been proposed for cord–rubber interphase layer. The numerical framework is implemented into commercial finite element code Abaqus/Standard via user subroutine (UMAT).

Findings

One of the most important findings obtained from reviewing various techniques is that meso-level fatigue damage modeling based on developed framework can simulate competitive damage scenarios, e.g. debonding, delamination or matrix failure.

Originality/value

A systematic framework for predicting failure in cord-reinforced rubber composite is formulated within the context of CDMs that can also be applied for industrial components, such as tires and airsprings.

Citation

Jha, N.K. and Nackenhorst, U. (2018), "Fatigue life prediction of cord–rubber composite structures based on progressive damage analysis", Engineering Computations, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 2215-2233. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-12-2016-0450