Chang-Su Woo†/Hyun-Sung Park*/Dong-Chul Park**
International Journal of Railway, vol. 1, no. 3, pp.122-127, 2008

Abstract : Rubber components are widely used in many application such as vibration isolators, damping, ride quality. Rubber spring is used in primary suspension system for railway vehicle. Characteristics and useful life prediction of rubber spring was very important in design procedure to assure the safety and reliability. Non-linear properties of rubber material which are described as strain energy function are important parameter to design and evaluate of rubber spring. These are determined by physical tests which are uniaxial tension, equi-biaxial tension and pure shear test. The computer simulation was executed to predict and evaluate the load capacity and stiffness for rubber spring. In order to investigate the useful life, the acceleration test were carried out. Acceleration test results changes as the threshold are used for assessment of the useful life and time to threshold value were plotted against reciprocal of absolute temperature to give the Arrhenius plot. By using the acceleration test, several useful life prediction for rubber spring were proposed.

Keyword : Rubber spring, Finite element analysis, Acceleration test, Useful life prediction