DEVELOPMENT OF A TOOL FOR ESTIMATING THE CHARACTERISTIC CURVES OF RUBBER-METAL PARTS

The development of rubber-metal parts used as load-carrying components in bogies of rail vehicles is mainly guided by their mechanical properties. Nonlinear force-deflection behaviours of such mainly elastic structural components are influenced by both the geometry of the rubber as well as the ratio of the vulcanized rubber-metal
surface in relation to the free surface of the rubber. Analytic calculation methods exist for the elastic moduli at the undeformed state, whereas a characteristic curve estimation tool is developed for multi-layer springs with circular cross sections to enhance the development of rubber-metal parts during the design phase. Beside three representative verification tests, the estimation tool is applied on selected multi-layer springs. A primary layer spring with two layers and a hole inside serves as demonstration model. The resulting characteristic curves and stiffness properties are compared with the experiments, results from literature as well as with numerical results based on a detailed finite element simulation.