Abstract: It is important for vehicle controllability and comfort to reliably determine the material parameters and accurately simulate the mechanical properties of rubber components. To meet the requirements of the analysis of rubber components in car industry, material test is designed and uniaxial stretch, uniaxial compression, and planer tension are performed to the rubber material of the control arm. The influences of sample difference, precondition, loading speed, and clamping method on the test results are analyzed. A reliable test method is proposed. The experimental data are processed and used to fit material parameters. The static rigidity test of the rubber bushing is performed and simulated with the determined material parameters. The simulation agrees well with the test. The results show that the material test method and the experimental data fitting method can reliably determine the rubber material parameters for finite element simulation.

Key words: mechanical testing, rubber bushing, simulation, test data fitting