Nonlinear Harmonic Analysis of Rubber Components

Many rubber parts used in industrial products are subject to harmonic loads superposed on static pre-loads. The accompanying deformation processes are in general highly nonlinear. In order to accurately assess the properties of such parts, sophisticated simulation tools are essential. The capabilities in Marc to perform a finite element analysis of small amplitude vibrations in deformed viscoelastic solids are presented, where the focus is on simulating nonlinear effects known as the Payne effect in the harmonic analysis. The presentation will review phenomenological models for the Payne effect, as well as methods that can directly include measured storage and loss data in tabular form in the analysis.