ABSTRACT
Elastomers are widely used in automotive anti-vibration systems (AVS). This chapter considers the qualitative relationship between hysteretic response and fatigue life prediction of elastomers. It discusses the effect of hysteretic response of elastomers on the fatigue life. The chapter presents a general derivation of constitutive equations for a simple non-linear phenomenological three-parameter model in order to simulate a stabilized hysteretic response. In order to derive the constitutive relations, a stress-stretch curve of carbon black-filled natural rubber is considered. This curve was obtained from uniaxial cyclic test interrupted by relaxation steps at different stretching levels. The chapter provides a brief analysis of the fatigue life criterion. The criterion value increases until a certain limit of minimum stretch is reached before it decreases with the increase of minimum stretch. This limit (minimum stretch) is likely independent of the stretch amplitude.
