Abstract: Effectively predicting the fatigue life of rubber components is a crucial part of design and development for them. In this study, the principle of linear cumulative fatigue damage is introduced to fatigue life prediction of rubber components. Afterwards, a standard for fatigue failure of rubber materials in actual loading conditions is recommended. Based on a simplified deformation of rubber material, dumbbell-shaped test column for tensile load and rubber ring rubber test column for bearing shear load are designed and its fatigue life data are obtained. To develop a formula of fatigue life, the least square method is employed with using tensile and shear test data. Taking one rear mount of engine and another mount of gearbox as research examples, their fatigue life are predicted and compared with experimental result in two typical operating conditions, which validated the predictive method for rubber component fatigue life in present work. The comparison also revealed that, the trend and shape of tensile fatigue life curve and simple shear fatigue life curve of rubber material are strikingly similar. Moreover, the fatigue life of the rubber mount can be effectively predicted by using fatigue life prediction formula of tensor form.

Key words: Fatigue life prediction, Linear cumulative fatigue damage, Rubber mount, Strain tensor