MODELING AND IDENTIFICATION OF ELASTOMERIC BEARING CHARACTERISTICS FOR LARGE-SCALE SIMULATIONS

A constitutive equation of the differential type is introduced to mode l the nonlinear viscoelastic response behavior of elastomeric bearings in large-scale system simulations for vibration assessment and compon ent loads prediction. The model accounts for the nonlinear dependence of dynamic stiffness and damping on vibration amplitude commonly obser ved in the behavior of bearings made of particle-reinforced elastomers . A testing procedure for the identification of the model parameters f rom bearing component test data is described. The experimental and ana lytical results for predicting the behavior of four (4) different car bushings are presented. In an example application, the model is incorp orated in an ADAMS simulation to study the dynamic behavior of a car r ear suspension.